Prince Charming
by crazy-says-I
Summary: Sasuke's the new kid on the block, the perfect tool to use against the class freak, Naruto. The popular crew bets him that he can't bed Naruto in a month. Sasuke takes them on, but what will happen to Naruto after the bet? Sasunaru. Complete!
1. Once Upon a Time

**Warnings:** Yaoi, cheesiness, AU, OOC, and all the warnings are the same in all chapters.

**Disclaimer:** I'm a hopeless romantic and these characters are chalk full of fun emotions to manipulate. I don't actually own them, I just torture them. :D

**Once Upon a Time**

It happens once in a lifetime. If you're lucky, that is. You'll find the love of everyone's dreams. Someone to talk to, cry with, share everything with. Someone who can make you laugh when everything goes wrong. The usual clichés.

But there's always that time right before it happens. Before the romance, the chance meeting across a crowded room, before that first sweet kiss, before betrayal, the time when it all seems hopeless. Like no matter what, even if everyone you know says otherwise, there is never going to be a Prince Charming out there for you.

Then, just like a hero is supposed to, he pops up and sweeps you off your feet. You'll ride off into the sunset together and live happily ever after.

That's what Naruto was always told anyway. Iruka used to tell him stories like that all the time. He especially told the one about Naruto's real parents. They met when they were three years old and their parents were both parts of different clans. These clans had always wanted to unite, but never had an excuse to.

Until Naruto's parents were born. They were forced to spend every summer together until they were eighteen. They didn't fall in love until they were nineteen but by twenty-one they had a bouncing baby boy.

This was the only story Iruka every told him that Naruto believed because he was living proof of it. But the other one's seemed to far fetched and out of this world to believe in. Who would want some cocky prince to come and save them? Shouldn't the girls be able to take care of themselves?

But when Sasuke came into the picture, Naruto found out first-hand why the damsels in distress were always crying for a hero.

When Sasuke came into the picture, Naruto's very own fairytale began.

So I guess we'll start where all good fairytales _do _start.

Once upon a time...


	2. Enter Prince Charming

(Same Warnings and Disclaimers)

**Chapter 1: Enter Prince Charming**

The day started as a normal day. The usual normal day that opens most stories. So there was no reason to suspect anything extraordinary would happen today, right?

Then why did Naruto feel his life was about to be thrown into a spinning black hole of chaos and confusion?

"Must be that last bowl of ramen I had for dinner." He muttered while walking to school. He knew he shouldn't have had that twenty-fourth bowl, and Iruka did warn him. Oh well, he'd never admit that his guardian was right out loud, so there was no use admitting it in his head was there?

"Hey! Uzumaki!" Naruto turned to see his best friends walking towards him, Kiba in the lead with Shikamaru and Lee not to far behind. These four had been thick as thieves since the diaper days a whole sixteen years ago.

"Hey guys. How goes life?"

"Yeah, because so much has changed since we saw you last. When was that again, Lee?"

"Fourteen hours at least! So tragic!"

"Shut up." Kiba laughed and gave Naruto a noogie. Honestly! Just because the blonde _happened_ to be a couple inches shorter than his friends did not give them permission to give him the incredibly painful noogies that they did. Nor did it give them a right to use his head as something to lean on, a footstool, or to lift him up and use him as a human shield to get through big crowds.

But they did anyway.

"I'm gonna get you, dog-boy!"

"I'd like to see you try!"

So Naruto pushed him over and ran for it. Well, really they all ran for it because the late bell was starting to ring and they could not be late again or they would get-

* * *

"Detention. We do not tolerate tardiness or skipping classes, and if you have any criminal intentions you might as well leave right now."

"Do you treat all of your new students with such hostility or am I just special?"

The Principal sighed and glared at the boy sitting in front of him.

"We don't accept smart-ass remarks either, Sasuke."

"But obviously swearing is okay?"

"Would you like a detention on your first day?" Sasuke smirked at his newest Principal and shook his head.

This was his fourth school in a year. In a single school year he had tormented three Principals so badly they landed in the nuthouse and the fourth, well let's just say he had the same intentions for this one as well.

"Fine then. Here is your schedule, your locker number and permutation, and your student identification card." He handed Sasuke a packet as he said this and sat down in the comfy leather chair behind the huge desk. "You saw the door, right?"

Sasuke scoffed.

"Later." He made sure to slam the door extra hard on his way out. The secretary looked up and glared at him, but Sasuke stuck his tongue out at the human-shaped Hostess cupcake with glasses and continued on his way.

The papers in the envelope revealed that his locker and homeroom were on opposite sides of the school. _Of course,_ he thought. They'd probably seen his record and were just begging for a reason to kick him out.

So, since he had at least ten minutes left before homeroom, Sasuke figured he was okay.

Then the bell rang and he realized that the clock he'd been looking at was broken.

Perfect first day, right?

But it didn't bug the Uchiha. It never did. However, he did have to skip going to his locker in order to make it to homeroom at all, so he went to the nearest stairwell and ran all the way to the sixth floor where his room was.

Luckily for him (or unluckily, depending on how you look at it) he'd met the teacher before.

Only once, but that was one to many times in his opinion.

* * *

"Oh no, what are you doing here?" Tsunade said. "I can't believe they gave me all the brats in one homeroom. I'm definitely going to complain, this is so ridiculous."

"Nice to see you too." Naruto said, coming in just a second too late with the rest of his friends.

"Whatever, I don't care where you sit. Just leave me alone."

"Yeah, yeah." The four of course grabbed all the seats in the back of the class. Sure the year was almost over, but their previous teacher was pregnant so she couldn't stay in school anymore, which landed them with Tsunade for the remainder of the year and most likely next year too.

She was pretty cool though, didn't take attendance until the very end of homeroom and didn't give a rat's ass when you showed up or left otherwise. Anyway...

Wasn't this story about Naruto's lack of a love life? So let's stir things up a bit, eh?

The door opened up again about five minutes after Naruto had come in and some kid entered.

Then, coming in right after him was a really tall kid with pimples all over his face.

After that was Sakura and Ino (who Shikamaru secretly drooled for).

And finally in walked someone Naruto had never seen before. He was a couple inches taller than Naruto (but who wasn't) and he had dark hair tied up in the back.

Naruto also noticed (discretely, of course) that the guy's build wasn't bad either.

"There is no way you got kicked out of another school! That's three in one year! Damn kid, you are good." Tsunade shouted. Sasuke rolled his eyes and went to sit down at some random seat in the front. He really didn't like this lady. Not that he liked many people at all...

"Everyone! Listen up you brats! This is Sasuke Uchiha, transfer student and shit. Make him feel welcome." Already the girls were drooling. So were some guys.

And the pet gerbil in the back had something coming out of his mouth too.

Oh, wait. That's foam. He's got rabies.

"Sasuke! Come sit with us!"

"Yeah, we can make you feel right at home."

"My home doesn't have random people staring at me for no reason what-so-ever. I like my home. It leaves me alone." He glared at the girls (Not Sakura and Ino) who were attempting to hit on him. "You should do the same."

Naruto laughed at the looks on the girl's faces. They looked so shocked, like no guy had ever denied them before in their lives. Sakura and Ino had been laughing too, but they stopped when Naruto started.

Not something that went unnoticed by the newest arrival to the class.

_Whatever,_ thought Sasuke. He didn't have the patience to deal with stupid high school drama.

* * *

That day at lunch, the popular kids of the junior class approached Sasuke. Normally, Sasuke would have steered clear of these kids because (and he didn't deny this) with his insane looks, hanging out with these people would only lead to stupid stereotypes that he didn't need.

(His guardian, Kakashi, never failed to point out that by avoiding these people because of their own stereotypes made Sasuke just as stereotypical as the average high-school student, which the kid hated being related to. But Kakashi was not here at the moment, so Sasuke was free to think this.)

Anyway, today he listened to what they had to say because it was a very interesting proposition.

"Okay, so listen up. One of the kids in your homeroom class, Naruto Uzumaki, he's a freak. No one likes him except his freak friends." The guy who looked like the leader of the pack told him.

"So? I should care?"

"Haha, you're funny. Anyway, we figured since you're new and everything, you'd be willing to help us out a bit. See, most of us think that Naruto would be totally willing to bed anyone he meets. However, there are some doubters." He glared at one girl in the pack and turned back to Sasuke, but one of his friends cut him off.

"We're willing to pay you twenty bucks each if you can get Naruto in bed within a month. You're the new guy, you'll be able to start off with a clean slate."

"And are your slates not clean?" He glared.

"No one's slate is clean with that freak. Everyone has..." He paused like he was looking for the right word. One that would say what they did to Naruto without making it sound as bad as it really was. "..._Teased_ him at one point or another. Why not? He's so different than us it's embarrassing."

"And why should I stoop to your level? This is ridiculous. He's never done anything to me."

"Well, he's done some really personal stuff to some of us. And don't forget, there are at least fifty people in on this bet."

"Fifty? Isn't that a lot?" The boy smirked, seemingly proud that more than half of the class's members were against some random kid.

"We know, ain't it great?" He chuckled. "Well, it is for you anyway. What's fifty times twenty? A thousand? Yeah, that's right. A thousand dollars if you can get the kid in bed by prom night."

A thousand dollars? This kid must have done something terrible. Hmm... Do I really care? NO. But then again... a thousand dollars is a lot of money...

"Alright, I'm in." They shook on it.

"Excellent. You should probably start as soon as you can. We're not entirely sure about the whole 'easy' part."

"Whatever." And Sasuke left the lunchroom.

Interesting first day. He already pissed off the Principal, hated all of his teachers and classmates, and he had a bet for a thousand dollars going with a bunch of total strangers.

Not like it was exciting...But at least it was something to do.

* * *

English class at last! Thank Ichiraku! Naruto loved English class.

Not because he was passing it or anything! Oh no, but Iruka teaches English class and it's the last period of the day.

So this was the only class that Naruto bothered to pay any attention in, meaning he sat in the front instead of the back.

He also did that because this was the only class he didn't have any of his friends in, and that meant that no one was there to distract him from the evilness that was his classmates except Iruka who always stood up front.

Because you know, that's what teachers are supposed to do.

"Good afternoon class! How were your weekends?" Naruto never bothered to answer this question since Iruka obviously knew how his weekend was.

"Mine was fantastic, Iruka! My Great Aunt Winifred died and left us a fortune!" Sakura screamed to her teacher.

Naruto had to bury his head in his arms so no one would hear him laughing. Iruka was biting his cheeks and breathing deeply so as not to hurt Sakura's feelings.

Though, no one else was being subtle about it at all.

"You are so stupid! Ha! You're happy that your aunt died?" Ino laughed at her friend.

The guffawing stopped whenever the door opened though. Everyone looked up to see who would come late to Iruka's class. After all, he was the favorite teacher of the school.

Naruto saw the guy that had come into his homeroom that morning, Sasuke. He got a better view of the guy and saw that it wasn't just his build that was...er...not bad looking, but his face and everything else were gorgeous.

"Sasuke, I presume?" Iruka said. The new arrival nodded and all the girls swooned in their seats. "Welcome aboard. How about you take the seat next to Naruto?"

"But Iruka! Naruto's germs will rub off on the sex-godness! You can't sit them next to each other!" Iruka glared at the girl that said that and looked at Naruto, who had his head down but was smiling.

Though you'd have to be the biggest asshole on the planet not to see it was fake.

"Sasuke, do you value your sex-godness \too much or can you bare sitting next to Naruto?"

Despite the exclamations of deepest protest, Sasuke sat down next to Naruto and got out his notebooks.

"I don't see anything wrong with him." All the heads shot up to look at him, fastest of them being Naruto's.

"Good. Now if you will all open to a new page in your journals, I will start this week's lecture."

Naruto normally would have followed along with every word Iruka was saying, but today there was a huge distraction.

The guy sitting next to him, obviously. Why would Sasuke stand up for him? What did he get from it? Because normally anyone that was nice to him (other than his friends or Iruka) was just out to get something from someone.

But Sasuke was a new kid. Didn't know anyone, couldn't possibly get anything out of this. At least, nothing that Naruto could think of.

Unknowingly, the blonde let out a quiet groan because he was thinking so much.

"You know, normally someone would just say thank you, but a groan works to I guess."

Naruto looked at Sasuke again.

"Wha-hu-oh! -Er..."

"Are you always this articulate?" (1)

Naruto took a deep breath and let it out with a laugh.

"No. There are times when I can hardly make a complete sentence."

"Well, I'd never be able to guess with that first impression."

Naruto chuckled under his breath.

"Thanks for that before anyway."

"No-"

"Naruto, Sasuke. No talking please." Iruka said, though his face was strict his eyes were smiling.

"Sorry."

They took notes for the rest of class and didn't talk again.

But Naruto was okay with that.

* * *

Sasuke was in the zone. He couldn't believe he'd thought it would be difficult to get a thousand dollars.

He also couldn't believe that he was talking so much to this kid. Normally the only time he wasted breath like this was to insult somebody.

But a thousand dollars is a lot of money.

And maybe this bet could be a reason for him to stay here a little longer than his other schools.

Maybe.

That's from Hercules!! Meg says it when Hercules stutters. : D

How'd you like it so far? You can review and tell me please!!


	3. Friends Trust Each Other

You like me! You really like me!! 8-) This chapter is totally dedicated to those who reviewed and all the people with me on your alert lists! You guys are the coolest!!

Same Warnings and Disclaimers.

**Chapter Two: Friends**

Sasuke was facing a huge dilemma.

He had no idea where to go from here.

So far he'd talked to Naruto twice in English class and twice in homeroom. But they were just gentle flirting sessions, nothing big.

Though he did figure one thing out; If Naruto didn't trust him, Sasuke wasn't getting anywhere.

The onyx-eyed boy had been observing his prey for all three-days he'd been at Konoha High. (The bet was first thing on his mind, of course. Not the way Naruto sneezes three times in a row every time. Not the way he walks with his head down and a small, sad smile on his face. Definitely not the way his butt moved when he walked.)

Anyway, while Sasuke had been...observing Naruto he'd noticed this very crucial detail of trust. But just because he realized he needed Naruto's trust didn't mean he knew how to get it. Sasuke himself only trusted one other person besides himself and that was Kakashi, who had been his guardian for as long as the boy could remember.

Thinking of Kakashi...wasn't that guy supposed to be a genius? If anyone could figure this out, he could!

"Kakashi!" Sasuke called, walking into their house. "Kakashi, I need your help."

"I'm not giving the police _another_ fake alibi."

Sasuke sighed.

"Must you always go straight tot he negatives?"

"Yes. That would be the definition of pessimist, which is only obviously an effect of living with you for sixteen years."

Sasuke glared and sat down on the floor in front of the couch his dad was reclined on.

"I don't need help with the cops." Sasuke nervously glanced at the book in Kakashi's hands. Maybe this wasn't such a god idea. Maybe he should rethink his idea. The man was a genius, sure...but a perverted genius.

"Then what is it? If it's sex, just go read one of my-"

"How do you get someone you've never talked to before to trust you?" There, he though. I just spit it out, he can fig-

"What?"

Sasuke sighed again with a look that clearly asked why he was given a thickheaded, pervert genius for a guardian.

"I asked how do you get someone to trust you?"

Kakashi raised his eyebrows and swung his legs around to face Sasuke. He leaned forward and squinted, looking right into Sasuke's eyes.

"Why?"

Sasuke squinted back.

"A bet."

They both moved their head to Kakashi's right (Sasuke's left).

"Worth?"

"1,000 dollars."

They leaned the other way.

"If I help...?"

"100."

"300."

"100."

"300."

Then the dad pounced and they wrestled for a bit until he got his son in a head lock.

"Ha! 300."

"Fine. Let go."

Kakashi did so and got into a thinking pose.

"In order to get someone to trust you, you have to become their friend. Proof would be if they invited you into their house."

"I only have a month."

"Well them you better get to it, Ice King."

And Kakashi went back to his Couch of Useless Wisdom, as Sasuke called it from that day on.

But he had to admit, what his elder said made sense. But how to get into Naruto's house? Hmmm...What could he use?

Or who?

Didn't Naruto live with Iruka?

Well, Iruka is pretty cool. And Kakashi always said as soon as Sasuke liked a teacher he'd want to meet him...

"Kakashi! I've got a plan!"

* * *

"Naruto, could you take Ichiraku out for me?"

"Yeah, no problem!"

The yellow lab came bounding in with a leash in his mouth. Naruto smiled and hooked it on him to take the dog outside.

They'd name the pup after their favorite place in the whole world. Partially because Naruto wanted to and partially because that's where Iruka had found him.

"So, how was school today?" Iruka asked as his son came in.

"You should know, I see you there everyday." Iruka rolled his eyes as he pulled the lids off their dinner: take-out.

"Humor me and tell me about when I don't see you."

Naruto shrugged and pulled off his jacket. Then he got out two cups and a gallon of milk.

"It's alright. You know that new kid we have? Sasuke?"

"Uh huh, what about him?"

"He talks to me a lot." The English teacher smirked and pinched Naruto's cheek.

"Awww. Is Naru-chan blushing?" Naruto pushed him away and wrinkled his nose.

"Shut up."

Iruka laughed and went to answer the phone that had started ringing.

"It's about time you got a crush on someone. I was beginning to worry you'd never catch up to kids your age."

"Haha, thanks for the support _dad_."

Naruto continued to get their dinners ready while listening to Iruka greet whoever was on the telephone. This was the same every night. Not the phone call, but the Ramen take-out dinners. Neither one of them new how to cook and they never had time to go out to a nice restaurant or anything like that. But they were okay with it. After all, it was home.

Once Naruto got dinner on the table Iruka came back in with a mocking smile on his face that Naruto didn't particularly like.

"Speaking of Sasuke, that was his dad-Kakashi. They are coming over for dinner on Saturday."

"Why?"

"Something about my amazing teaching skills."

"Did you happen to mention that your cooking skills are limited to Easy Mac and Lucky Charms?"

"Nope."

"So which restaurant are we getting it from?"

"Sesame Inn."

"Should I ask Kiba to come pick up the boxes?"

"Yes, please."

* * *

The next day, Friday, Sasuke was bugging Naruto every chance he got. Truth was he could only remember one other time when he was this excited. He didn't quite know why either.

"What do you want us to wear? Is it formal?" That was a stupid question, Sasuke knew, but he'd never done this stuff before!

"Now way, 'Jeans and a T-shirt' kinda thing." Naruto said. "Now would you stop asking about it? It's just dinner."

When the blond turned his head Sasuke stuck out his tongue and crossed his eyes.

"Your face will get stuck like that if you keep it up." Sasuke snapped his head to see Iruka standing over him.

"Sorry." Naruto was snickering beside him and Iruka laughed.

"It's alright. Oh! We need to push dinner back to 7:30, okay?"

"Sure." He kicked Naruto under the desks and pulled out his notes.

"Oooh! Iruka, do you have a date?" Both boys cringed at how high one persons voice could go. Apparently the girl behind them had heard them talking about dinner.

"No. And it's none of your business if I did anyway."

But this got Sasuke thinking. Kakashi had been lonely lately... and Iruka seemed like the kind of person his guardian loved pissing off.

And somehow Kakashi always got a date or two out of the people he pissed off. That's how he'd met his homeroom teacher...

"Hey, Naruto." He flicked the blonde's ear to get his attention as the teacher continued to argue with the girl behind them. "What if we tried to get Iruka and Kakashi together?"

Naruto made a weird face that Sasuke couldn't really describe. It was somewhere between shock, constipation, and acceptance.

"I've never even met Kakashi!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Then after Saturday you can tell me if you want to or not. I think they'd be perfect together."

"Yeah, like I'm going to trust your opinion Mr. Four Schools in One Year."

The people Sasuke had made the bet with spread around his reputation just to make it harder for him. Now everyone knew not to piss the new kid off.

"Whatever. You'll see on Saturday."

Naruto shook his head and turned to pay attention to Iruka. And he didn't know why, but the blonde didn't think that having Sasuke come to his house was such a bad idea.

Sasuke was looking forward to it.

* * *

So, eventually Saturday rolled around. Iruka had picked up all the food they'd need from the Sesame Inn and Kiba came to pick up the boxes about an hour ago. For some reason that kid loved cardboard boxes...something about imagination...

Anyway, it was 7 o'clock and there were four people getting ready to meet up with very important people.

And aside from that Naruto, Sasuke, Iruka, and Kakashi were also getting ready for dinner.

While Naruto and Iruka had the radio blasting and were throwing clothes at each other trying to find the right sock that matches to the left sock, Sasuke and Kakashi were going about it in a much more dignified manner.

"What the hell did you do with my black shirt?"

"Which one? In case you didn't notice we only have black shirts!!"

"Oh...right..."

So, miraculously half an hour later, Sasuke was knocking on Naruto's door standing with Kakashi bugging him (no doubt on purpose) about if his shirt looked okay.

After he asked for the fiftieth time, Sasuke turned around and glared at Kakashi.

"Yes, shut up!"

"Hello Sasuke!" Both men jumped and screamed (not girly screams though, manly ones) when Iruka opened the door.

"H-h-hey!! Iruka! Er..." Sasuke looked around for a second not sure what to say. Then he remembered the guy standing behind him. "Oh yeah! This is Kakashi! My guardian."

The older men shook hands and smiled at each other.

"Hello." Kakashi said, attempting a suave, James Bond kind of voice. He liked Iruka.

"Hiya!" Said Iruka, attempting to scare the James Bond impersonator away. Kakashi scared him.

"Sasuke! You're late!"

"By all of three-minutes! You can' t be mad at me for that!"

"Can so." Naruto came up to stand next to Iruka. "You know dad, it's kind of a key point in inviting someone to your house to actually let them in."

"Oh yeah! Sorry." They stepped aside and let the other two in. They took off their shoes and hung their jackets on a coat hanger.

"Are you hungry?"

"Starved." Yep, Kakashi was very close to whipping out the 'Shaken, not stirred' lines. Damn was Iruka in for it.

"Right."

Sasuke and Naruto stayed behind their guardians and the latter leaned over to his friend.

"He's weird."

"He's an idiot." Sasuke replied. "He likes your dad, but doesn't know how to go about it. He's stuck mostly to the opposite sex so far. It's just a new environment."

Inwardly, the brunette couldn't believe he'd though his dad was a genius at 'People Handling'.

"Anyway, hope you like Amazing Chicken!"

"Er...Sure. Let's just go eat."

And the evening was pretty much spent like that. They had a great dinner (which everyone commented on, though Naruto laughed any time someone brought up Iruka's 'Fantastic Cooking Skills' which got him a few new bruises on his shins.)

After dinner, Kakashi and Sasuke decided they didn't really want to leave and Naruto broke out the all time greatest 'Awkward Silence Repellent', also known as Avalanche 1080.

Sasuke kicked his ass.

"No way! I thought you said you've never played Gamecube before!!"

"I haven't."

"You are such a liar!"

"I am not."

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Awww, look Iruka! A lover's quarrel." They heard laughter and jumped a mile apart. Neither had noticed how unbelievably close they'd come while arguing.

"Sasuke, it's almost midnight we've got to go."

"What? You're kidding."

"I don't kid."

"Good point." Both guests walked over to the door and got their shoes and jackets on. Iruka was saying goodbye to Kakashi and kind of ignoring Sasuke almost. Said boy smirked at his blonde friend.

"Told you they'd like each other." Naruto glared, defeated.

"Fine, so they like each other. What are we going to do about it?" Sasuke though on it for a minute and decided this would be the perfect opportunity to work on the bet.

"I'll talk to you at lunch on Monday. You have it fifth, right?"

"Yeah."

"Meet me by the bathroom on the sixth floor and we can plan it."

"Fine. I'll see you later!"

"Don't forget about your assignment Sasuke."

"Of course not. Bye." Then Kakashi and Sasuke left the house and started the walk back to their own. It wasn't too far, fifteen minutes at most.

"Great." Naruto said, rubbing his neck.

"What?" Iruka asked as he closed the door.

"We didn't have take-out tonight! That means dishes."

Iruka's finger flew to rest on his nose and his left arm shot in the air.

"Not it!"

"Damn you!"

"Love you too! Goodnight." Iruka walked up the stairs to his room and left his son to the dishes and some late night thinking.

_Sasuke isn't half bad, despite his reputation. Cool.

* * *

_

And a block away Sasuke was rethinking this whole bet. Wouldn't it be better to just know Naruto without getting money? It's not like this could end well if the blonde ever found out.

But it was a thousand dollars! How could he pass that up for someone he's just met a week ago? Why would he even be thinking about that stupid dobe's feelings? He'd never thought of anyone else's feelings before and he wasn't about to start now.

* * *

This was a long one, huh? Thanks for reviewing and everything please review again!! (Or for the first time if you didn't last time...) 


	4. Lunch on the Roof

Okay! I love you all!! Hope you like this one better than the last!

**Chapter Three: Lunch on the Roof**

Sunday's have always been a scared day for Naruto and his friends. Simply because that was the day they hung out. It was when they could vent to each other without being mocked or they could knock each other's guts onto the floor and never get into any real fights. It was Naruto's favorite day of the week. They even had a secret hang out!

Okay... so the clubhouse was built when they were five...and it was lopsided. But it was still the coolest damn hangout ever!

Of course, if they were to win a giant mansion equip with pool and flat screens in every room, that wouldn't be bad either. Though they knew that wasn't going to happen so it was better not to dream.

Anyway, their ritual was to meet every week in front of Shikamaru's house, because it was the closest to the woods where the tree house was, and then they'd walk and/or race to the giant oak that held their sanctuary in it.

Today they chose to walk peacefully until they got within a 20 ft. radius and then ditch Kiba and run full speed so they could pull up the rope before he got there.

Naruto had a field day with that one.

"Come on, dog boy! You can jump higher than that!" The blonde was sitting on the edge of the "porch" and tossing the rope up and down, just testing his friend's limits.

"Naruto, let him up here already. I've heard enough of his barking to last a lifetime." Shikamaru groaned. "You're all so troublesome."

"Yeah, that's why you've stuck with us this long right?" Naruto asked. Lee was behind them both laughing his ass off. In fact, he was laughing so hard he fell out of the tree house. Both his friends made a grab at him but it did no good. He was a goner.

Well, that's what everyone thought anyway. Until he landed on someone.

"Thank you for catching me, friend!" Said Lee, obviously thinking he'd landed on Kiba.

But the dog boy was standing five feet away from the people on the ground.

"I didn't catch you, you fell on me." Lee looked down - because he was sitting on the poor guy - and saw... well...someone he'd never seen before.

"Who are you?"

"Isn't it rude to question someone _after_ you crush their internal organs?" The Mystery Man said.

"Hey, he's sorry man! Lee's just..." Kiba paused, searching for a good word to describe Lee. "Lee. He's just Lee." The brunette went to pull his friend off of the stranger because bushy brow seemed to be having trouble standing up. He just kept staring at the guy.

"Are you guys okay down there? Who's that guy Lee killed?"

"He didn't kill him! He just... squashed him a bit."

"Hello! Still have a heavy green blob sitting on me."

"Oh! Right." Kiba pulled Lee off of the guy and brushed him off. He then leaned down to offer the guy a hand up, but he just waved him off and stood on his own. "What's your name anyway?"

The newcomer rolled his eyes and straightened out his jacket, ignoring Kiba's question completely.

"He asked you a question. Or do you not have a name?" Lee asked, speaking for the first time in five minutes. Which doesn't seem like a lot to normal people but Lee was Lee and talked a lot.

"I have a name." He glared at lee. "It's Neji."

Lee stuck out his hand, seemingly oblivious to the look being sent his way. Then again, it was hard to tell what the guy was glaring out with that funky color in his eyes. It was almost completely white. Kiba had seen those eyes before...he'd been sure he'd drooled over them twice or twelve times too. But surely it wasn't this guy he'd been looking at, right?

No...he didn't swing that way. So where had he seen them?

"Hinata!" Kiba screamed, pointing at Neji. Both he and Lee looked at dog boy.

"What?" They asked.

"Are you related to Hinata Hyuuga?"

Neji glanced at Lee, as if asking if it was okay to answer. Lee shrugged looking back at him.

"Er...she's my cousin?" It came out as a question because Neji was asking himself how the hell a walk through the woods turned into this. First a flying green blob also known as Lee pummeled him. Then he was glared at by said green blob for no reason. Now some stranger was interrogating him about his cousin. (1)

Oh yeah, it was definitely going to be the park next time. Or he could stay in his house for the rest of his life and avoid all people, they scared him anyway.

"I knew it! She told me about you! You're Neji, right?"

"I did introduce myself... Right?" Was he going crazy?

"Oh yeah, sorry. But she told me you were transferring from a Public School. Why would you do that?"

"Well if you are so chatty with my cousin, why not go ask her? I'm leaving." And the stranger left. Lee practically fainted.

He was so mysterious, so suave! He was smooth and...hip and cool!! Lee's eyes trailed after his savior. And he has a tremendous bottom.

Kiba looked at his friend, whose head was slightly tilted as he followed their newest acquaintance. A devilish smirk then graced his face.

"Lee! You are checking him out!" That snapped Lee out of his trance.

"Was not!"

"Hey, if everything okay down there?" Kiba laughed.

"Lee's perfectly fine, if that's what you're asking." He laughed again as his friend tried to shut him up. "He's checking out Neji's ass!"

"I WAS NOT!"

"Me thinks thou dust protest to much." Meanwhile, all those feet away, Neji was smirking. Not even in Konoha for twenty-four hours and he already met someone who wanted him? Maybe was going to like this place more than he thought. He swung his hips a little more for good measure.

"You're doing it again!"

"Shut up Kiba!" Oh yeah, he'd definitely like it here.

Back up in the clubhouse, Naruto and Shikamaru were playing cards.

"Well, that was random and poorly carried out." Naruto commented. The other shook his head as they listened to Kiba and Lee fighting outside.

Sunday's were sacred. Most of the time anyway.

* * *

That afternoon, around two o'clock, Sasuke got out of bed. Yeah so it seems kind of late! But like any normal teenager if he doesn't get his much-needed twelve hours of sleep he is more than a little cranky.

"Morning." He mumbled when he saw Kakashi in the kitchen.

"You mean afternoon, sunshine. It's almost two thirty." Okay, so it was later than two. But seriously, does anyone care? Sasuke doesn't.

"Hn." He started to make his breakfast...er... lunch...break-brunch! No. Whatever the meal is, he started to make it. "Hey, did that chicken last night seem..."

"Familiar? Yep."

"Where have we had it before?"

"Sesame Inn."

"Really? I didn't like it when we had it there." Kakashi smirked.

"You weren't sitting next to your precious Naruto when we went there, now where you?" Sasuke glared at his guardian and sat down with the Lucky Charms.

"Shut up." But this just further motivated Kakashi.

"How come you didn't tell me you actually liked him? It's totally obvious." His son started killing all of the marshmallows in his cereal, refusing to respond. "You don't have to do the bet you know. Tell them you lied or were caught or something."

"That's stupid. I don't like that dobe, I'm only in it for the money." Kakashi sighed and picked up his book off the counter.

"Well, whatever you do leave me out of it. I really liked Iruka yesterday and I hope to see him again." He paused before leaving the kitchen. "And not sitting across from lawyers filing a restraining order against you, okay?"

"Hn." And Sasuke was left to his thoughts, which surprisingly were consumed, by blonde hair and blue eyes...

* * *

"But Iruka! I don't understand it!" Naruto whined.

"For the last time! I don't help the other students, I will not help you."

"What kind of a teacher doesn't help their students?" Iruka glared at his son and grabbed the paper out of his hands, looking it over.

"Are you kidding? This is a review from last year! How could you not get this?"

Naruto blushed and grinned sheepishly.

"Because this was the unit that you did for me when I was in the hospital with... well you know, that stuff. (2)" His guardian groaned as Naruto brought up the one thing he definitely regretted above most other things in his life.

"I knew it would come back to bite me in the ass." He took another glance at Naruto and sighed. "Fine, give me a pen."

"Ya! You're awesome Iruka!"

"I know." They smiled and then teacher helped student learn more than have of last year's curriculum. That had been one long hospital trip, after all.

* * *

"Okay class! Now, don't forget that page 623 is due tomorrow. Have a great day everyone." The waaaaaay to overly cheerful I-know-what-I'm-teaching-an-you-don't-so-ha-ha math teacher said, waving everyone out the door to lunch.

"Wow, I never thought it was possible." Kiba said sounding flabbergasted.

"What?" Naruto was looking around as if expecting something amazing to pop out of a wall somewhere.

"Lee has checked one guy out more in one day than I have Hinata in the entire school year!" Naruto laughed as they saw said friend drooling very obviously after Neji who - true to what Kiba had said yesterday - had transferred to their school.

And, also true to what Kiba had said, Lee's jaw was on the floor.

"Trying to catch flies again are we?" Shikamaru walked up to join them.

"Sadly yes." Naruto sighed and shook his head, thinking about why his friend would be pining over _that _guy. Sure Neji was attractive, but he was nothing like-

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, startling all three of his friends who jumped and looked at him.

"What?"

"I was supposed to meet Sasuke for lunch! Sorry, I'll catch you guys later!" And he ran off, leaving the other two to pull Lee back out of his trance.

One minute and Forty-six seconds later, Sasuke Uchiha was met with an out of breath Naruto.

"You're late." Sasuke said. In all honesty, it didn't bug him much that Naruto was a couple minutes late. What really bugged him was that he'd been leaning against the wall, thinking he was safe next to the guy's bathroom, and all the of the girls that had passed stared at him until they walked into the glass doors which were conveniently placed just a few feet away from the bathroom.

No, really, there was a pile of bodies now next to the doors staring at him with their eyes wide open, not blinking. He was scared.

"I know, sorry! It's actually a funny story-"

"I'm not interested in funny stories right now." He snapped, temporarily forgetting that he was talking to his ticket to a thousand dollars.

"Oh, sorry." There was an awkward silence as they stood there. Naruto, not being one for awkward silences, broke it by whistling an old tune he knew.

"Is that..." _No way,_ though Sasuke. _No one would sing that song in high school._ "Is that the Barney theme song?"

Naruto stopped whistling immediately.

"What? No, I don't know what you're talking about. Hey speaking about talking weren't we supposed to be talking about something right now?"

"Don't act suspicious or anything, that would lead me to believe that you really were whistling the Barney theme song right now..." Sasuke said, obviously being sarcastic.

"Well it was your fault for being all quiet!"

"My fault?"

"Yes." Naruto said. He nodded confidently too. If Sasuke weren't such an Ice King, he wouldn't have had to go to such drastic measures to ensure his own sanity.

"Right. And people think I'm insane." Inside Naruto fell down comically. Hadn't he just thought he was sane? What the hell did Sasuke want anyway?

"How are we going to get Kakashi and Iruka together?" Asked Naruto. Sasuke pushed himself off the wall and started to walk away. "Hey! What are you walking away for?"

"You're supposed to follow me." Sasuke called over his shoulder. Naruto jogged to catch up to his friend and realized he didn't know what was down this way.

"Where are we going?" He asked.

"You'll see."

They walked along in silence for a few minutes, and then something caught Naruto's attention. It wasn't anything physical or something like that. But just something that was nagging at his mind.

"You've been here all of a week, I've been here three years. How do you know something about the building that I don't know?"

"You've heard about my reputation, right?" He led the blonde down a very narrow hallway that Naruto wouldn't have ever suspected to exist in his school.

"Of course. They give you a pretty bad rap around here." He smirked. "But the chicks totally dig that."

"Hn. I could care less about what the "chicks dig"." Naruto laughed. Something about that coming from Sasuke's mouth amused him. "But anyway, I got a map of the school from the Internet and studied it."

"Why, incase one of those Mafia members finally finds you?" He laughed. At least until he bumped into Sasuke, who stopped and turned around.

"I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." He whispered. It really surprised Naruto because he'd stopped so abruptly that it caught the blonde off guard. They were now so close Naruto could feel the other's breath on his face.

"Oh." They stayed there, looking into each other's eyes for what seemed like eternity. Sasuke was the first to do anything when he turned back around and led the way to a door.

Then he stopped, but Naruto was prepared this time. He only slightly brushed his ass.

"We've got to work out some kind of signal. Although, a 'Hey Naruto I'm stopping now' wou-" But he didn't get to finish his sentence because a hand was put over his mouth.

"The Principal's office is right below us and this is one of the only places where there isn't a vent imbetween the floors so if we aren't careful he'll hear us." Sasuke said, though his voice was barely above a whisper. He removed his hand from Naruto's mouth and took his friend's hand in his. Then he led them through the door and up a lot of stairs. Pretty soon Naruto was wondering how they were doing this all in one period.

But they did stop walking soon enough. And Sasuke let go of Naruto's hand to hold the ladder.

"Climb up." Naruto raised an eyebrow at the taller boy. Then he looked the ladder up and down. It was rusty, obviously hadn't been used in years, and he was pretty sure one of the bolts on the top was older than the school itself.

"You must be joking." Sasuke sighed. _Okay, let's make up for lost time here._

"Do you trust me?" He asked, still holding on to the ladder, but he turned his head so he could get a better look at Naruto.

"What?"

"Do you trust me?" He repeated. Naruto looked hesitant at first, but after a moment to think he nodded. "Then go ahead up the ladder. I'll catch you if you fall."

Naruto's eyes widened a little when Sasuke said that. Wouldn't that be something a friend would say? Or...

A lover would say that too, wouldn't they?

Why was Naruto thinking of Sasuke as a lover? Maybe he should ask Iruka, he usually knew those kinds of answers.

"Naruto?" The blonde sighed and moved towards the ladder. He grabbed on and started to climb. It wasn't as bad as it looked, actually. He definitely had this down.

Or not.

His foot missed the next bar and Naruto fell. It was the last bar on the ladder, so just as it seemed he'd made it up he began to fall to his death.

Or so he thought.

"Told you I'd catch you." Naruto opened his tightly clenched eyes to see Sasuke who had stayed true to his promise and caught Naruto.

"Thank you!" He let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding and looked up at the Uchiha's eyes.

Sure he'd seen the eyes before. They were the weirdest color he'd ever seen in an eye. Almost a navy blue but so dark they seemed black in this light. Especially with the sun behind his head, it made Sasuke seem like some kind of black angel.

Okay, that was sill, Naruto told himself. Only love struck girls say that about their boyfriends.

But just because he shouldn't be saying it didn't make it any less true.

Sasuke, on the other hand, was studying Naruto's eyes for the very first time. He'd seen the fact that they were blue of course he knew that. But he'd never seen that look in them before. They looked like Naruto was staring up at someone precious to him. Someone who he would want to spend time with.

No one ever looked at Sasuke like that before. He decided he liked that shine in the ocean blue eyes.

But just as he realized what he was thinking that look vanished. And he was reminded that he was still holding Naruto in his arms.

"Oh! Right, s-sorry." Gently he placed the blonde's feet on the ground. Naruto straightened out his clothes and grinned up at his friend.

"So what were we coming out here for anyway?" Sasuke's eyes widened and he grabbed Naruto's hand again and began running.

"Hurry up! We might have missed it!" He ran over and under anything that got in their path, forcing Naruto to do the same. Eventually he slowed, but only a little bit. "Come on, Naruto! Come see!"

They ran around a wall and up a ramp, until they were standing in a room that was almost completely dark, save for the little bit of sunlight shining through a crack in the wall.

"Sasuke! What are we doing in here?" The blond was trying to catch his breath and interrogate his friend at the same time, which wasn't turning out so well.

"Just watch. We didn't miss it. You have to see." This had been Sasuke's hiding place almost all of last week. He'd avoided people as often as he could and anytime he had lunch or a free period he snuck out here. That's how he'd found both ways to get here. But since Naruto was afraid of the ladder he'd had to bring them the long way around.

He told Naruto all of this as the Sun started to move directly above the roof, temporarily throwing the place into utter darkness.

"Sasuke..." Naruto trailed off, tightening his hold on the other's hand. Sasuke squeezed back.

"Just a moment more. You're going to love this." And then they saw it.

Above their heads, directly in the center of the ceiling in the small room, was a little stain glass window. In the window was the most peculiar design filled with the almost completely opposite colors of orange and the darkest of blues.

"Wow." Naruto gasped. That one window illuminated the whole room, revealing old notebooks and pews. There was a crucifix in a corner too.

"I read about this place online. Apparently, this school used to be an old folks home, and this was their chapel. It's been abandoned ever since the school was started. I guess they never tore it down. They forgot about it."

"This is amazing." Sasuke smiled a little at the sound of Naruto's voice. He didn't know why but he liked hearing it filled with such awe at a little light and some pretty colors.

Needless to say, neither talked at all about the Iruka and Kakashi predicament. And when the bell rang for sixth period they didn't leave. In fact, they didn't leave that room until close to three o'clock in the afternoon. Because the Sun didn't leave till then. They'd been so caught up in each other...er... in the colors of course, that they didn't leave until they knew almost everything about the other one.

If they liked each other that would have been the perfect first date.

* * *

(1) I know Neji is kind of randomly thrown in there, but I tried to make it not so corny. And the rope thing is from the movie Without a Paddle, which is very funny and highly recommended.

(2) This will be explained later on, I promise! Please review!


	5. Ice Cream Is Naughty

Thank you!! Thank you sooo much! My story is officially in a C2 and I got loads of reviews!! You are all sooo cool!! Enjoy my story again, please!

**Chapter Four:** **The Movie Store and Ice Cream**

Naruto remembered when he was little and he used to beg Iruka for stories. Usually, because his guardian was such a hopeless romantic, they were bursting with sappy romance and the damsels in distress. Naruto always thought those girls were stupid. Why would you just wait around for some Prince to come save the day? Why not save yourself?

Well... Naruto found himself realizing why they did that. Sure it was a gradual process and he was barely starting to see that, but he figures that some more time with Sasuke and he just might feel the same way they do.

Besides, a rather comforting thought was that it wasn't always the _girl's_ part to be protected. Just look at his parents. When they fell in love his dad had been in a huge financial mess. He lost his apartment, his clothes, his dog, everything. His parent's had died the summer before and he didn't have anywhere to go.

Except to Naruto's mother.

She helped him, let him live with her while he was having trouble. She put them both through college with her parent's inheritance. But when his birth dad was back on his feet and had a job, he still didn't move out. They stayed together.

Iruka always said that they lived the modern day version of every classic fairytale and that gave Naruto some idea of what love must be like. He didn't have any of his own memories of his parents; they'd died on the first night they left him with a babysitter. Iruka's stories helped him so much he doubted he'd ever be able to properly thank the man.

Especially because he was the one who saved Naruto from having a horrible childhood.

It was tough when none of the foster families he'd had ever wanted to keep him. Until, of course, he met Iruka. So it was only natural that Naruto wanted the best for this man that did so much for him.

But damn was the man evil! Not in the literal sense, but jeez! Naruto had only missed one English class and he was making him read and summarize the entire chapter!

"Come on, Iruka! Let me slide, just once?" The blonde whined for the umpteenth time that night. But it was a dignified whine, full of self-respect and masculinity.

At least, that's what he'd say if anyone ever asked him about it.

"This is my punishment for skipping class. You can ask Kiba; he's gotten the same one before. As do all of my student's who commit this crime, so deal."

"I'm not your student! Well... okay yeah, I'm your student. But I'm also your son! Can't you just pretend I didn't skip class?" Almost immediately he regretted his need to always voice his opinions. He'd seen that smirk on Iruka before. It usually meant death.

Not in the literal sense, of course. But maybe he'd be safer with the ten-page summary.

"I'll let you go," Naruto sighed...almost. He could just sense a major trade-off coming. "If you tell me who you were doing."

The next noise that came out of Naruto's mouth was so girly and high-pitched that not even he could spin a cover-up of some sort of manly excuse. But that was just shocking!

Especially because Naruto was with Sasuke when he skipped and... Well... Iruka didn't raise no fool, he saw Sasuke's ass!

"I knew it! So spill, you were with Sasuke right?" Iruka grabbed his son's arm and practically dragged him over to their living room couch. Scratch that, he did drag him. Which was totally understandable because this was pretty strange, right? A dad asking his son if he was doing anyone...

You mean it's not? Oh, okay.

"Yes, I was with Sasuke. No, we were **not** doing anything like that."

"But you wanted to."

"Ye-NO! Come on, dad!" Iruka's smirk widened at the slip up. Which totally baffled Naruto because he thought it was as big as it could get but, no, there you go it was bigger.

"So what did you guys," He narrowed his eyes. "do?"

The blonde rolled his eyes at his father's perverted-ness. Often times he found his life to be surrounded by perverts. Kiba was a pervert. Shikamaru was a total closet pervert. He knew Kakashi was a pervert. And his own dad: pervert! Honestly, it's a wonder it didn't rub off on him!

"We talked." Iruka gave a very exasperated sigh.

"What did you guys talk about?"

"And why exactly should I tell you?"

"Because, Naruto! I've hit a romantic dry-spell and I need to live vicariously through someone.(1)" This got a laugh out of the boy. He knew damn well Iruka could never hit a "romantic dry-spell" if he tried. Everyone liked him. But it couldn't hurt...

"What about Kakashi?" Iruka tutted and shook his head.

"No changing the subject. How could you possibly think I could be distracted by a cute butt?"

"Oh yeah, not you Iruka."

"Never. Now tell me all about you non-date with the new potential lover." Naruto glared but his face relaxed when he remembered the afternoon he'd had.

"It was awesome, actually. We talked about nothing and everything at the same time. They were silly things we could have found out during a Truth or Dare game. But at the same time it felt like he would never tell anyone else about them." Naruto's eyes had completely glazed over now, and he didn't look like he was actually telling Iruka about their afternoon, but remembering it for himself.

Iruka shivered and stood up.

"You just..." He shook his head and pointed at Naruto. "You did that on purpose! Now we have to go get ice cream and sappy, Hallmark channel movies. Damn you."

Naruto was cracking up at how easily his dad's inner romantic was stirred. But at the same time, he was still feeling light-headed from his memories. He'd heard Sasuke laugh that afternoon. He doubted anyone else could say that.

"Okay fine. But I'm driving!" Iruka chucked the keys at his son's head.

"Whatever, let's go." They grabbed their jackets and headed out to the supermarket, leaving poor Ichiraku staring after them

The dog lie down on the floor and put a paw over his eyes with a whimper. As if saying, "What did I ever do?"

* * *

On the other side of town, there was a raven-haired kid stomping through the streets.

And walking calmly behind him was Sasuke Uchiha. Of course he felt like stomping like the kid was doing, but he figured that would ruin his reputation as a cool and collected mysterious person. And he really didn't want that.

Why did he feel like stomping, you ask? Didn't he just spend a fantastic afternoon with the sweetest, loudest, cutest-

Damn! There he goes again, thinking stupid things about Naruto that weren't true. The only good thing about that stupid dobe was that he was a sure-fire way to get some cash.

For some stupid reason, Sasuke could not believe this and it was really pissing him off. What was pissing him off even more was this:

The bet wasn't on his mind one time other than when he first met up with Naruto.

That was not supposed to happen! He was supposed to get the boy's trust, fuck him hard, get the cash and pull some horrible prank on the principal that got him expelled and moved to another school! That's how it had gone for all his other schools!

Don't look at him like that, he knows he's a heartless bastard but it's working for him. You didn't think they'd moved around this much on Kakashi's lousy salary, did you?

Oh no, this has been happening for a long time. That's what Kakashi meant with the restraining order remark. Three of the four guys he'd done this to had filed them. And the last one...

Sasuke didn't want to think about him.

But back to his current situation. Why had he told Naruto so much about him? He told him everything. Well...except for some of the huge stuff. But other than the obvious he'd pretty much given up his life's story. From his favorite boxers to when he met Kakashi. This was really frustrating! Why the hell would he tell this stuff to Naruto?

Why did he feel obliged to let one person know everything about him? To let that one person in...

To trust him.

He trusted Naruto.

He's never trusted anyone but Kakashi before. Why would he trust some punk that's hated by everyone around him if he just met him a week ago?

Why is it that with every answer comes fifty questions? Damn this psychological shit, he's going to get Kakashi and watch some blood.

So he slammed open his door and stormed into the kitchen where his guardian was seated. The older man only glanced up from his book when Sasuke threw his backpack down on the table.

"So, do you want to see a psychotic serial killer or a massive battle between man and beast?" Kakashi said with almost a jovial tone.

"Anything where someone is tormented and in pain."

"Serial killer it is then." He tossed his keys to Sasuke and they headed out to the video store. The ride was filled with a tense silence, one that they had - surprisingly- almost never had before.

Of course Kakashi in all his wisdom knew exactly why his son was being such an angsty bitch. It was because he liked that Naruto kid but refused to admit it. Which the man found completely reasonable, seeing as Sasuke had a very hard time with people and anything to do with them. So the fact that someone, and a hyperactive knucklehead to boot, could get to him so fast must have scared him.

But he still couldn't shake the feeling that this bet was not going to turn out the way the others had. It would be much worse. For both of them.

"Sasuke." He started. He didn't continue until they reached a red light, just in case Sasuke blew up at him. But when they did stop he said, "Be careful with this one."

The boy surprised him when he sighed and the pissed off look slid off his face. When his mask was down he looked about ready to cry with frustration.

"I know." Kakashi nodded and the light turned green. After a few more twists and turns they reach the parking lot for Instant Replay, the movie store in this neighborhood.

As soon as the car stopped, Sasuke put a mask back on. And Kakashi couldn't help but hope that this Naruto could help his son.

After all, no one deserved to have to pretend they were flawless. Especially the people who have more bottled up emotions than the almost every other person on the planet.

Especially the people like Sasuke.

* * *

"Iruka."

He flinched when the man didn't stop. But instead just continued to dance.

And sing.

He's a bad singer.

"Iruka, stop it! We are in public!"

"But Naruto! I'm waitin' for the world to fall!" (2)

"Yeah, I don't care. Can you please pick a movie?" Iruka laughed and looked at the choices in his son's hands.

"Hmm... It's a very difficult decision. On the one hand we could go with Shall We Dance, hilarious and incredibly well endowed Richard Gere or we could rent Two Weeks Notice, the equally hilarious yet slightly less handsome Hugh Grant..." He paused as if making a life-altering decision.

Which, when you think about it, he kind of was. It's a very difficult assessment to make. Who could possibly choose between Hugh Grant and Richard Gere?

Wait! It's okay, Naruto found the perfect solution. Which almost had Iruka screaming like a yaoi fan girl who caught her favorite guys... But he didn't, because they were in public and he could always wait to be home with Naruto and watch-

"The Lake House." His eyes widened to the size of Frisbees when he saw the cover. "The excruciatingly gorgeous Keanu Reeves with his sexgod voice _and_ my hero, Sandra Bullock."

Naruto laughed at his guardian and his insaneness. It was the greatest characteristic he though anyone could find in someone. Iruka was so easily entertained it was cute.

"Fancy seeing you here." They both looked up at the voice to see Kakashi and Sasuke staring at them. The former had a very amused grin on his face when he saw Iruka hugging a DVD case. The latter determined to glare at everything except Naruto.

"Kakashi! What brings you to the movie store?" Iruka tried desperately to not appear to be someone who hugged inanimate objects, failing miserably and instead looking like a kindergartener trying to hide the cookie.

"Oh you know, movies." Naruto snorted and got a swift kick in the shin from his guardian. It was totally inconspicuous, but it did leave Naruto wondering why his legs got more bruises on them every time Kakashi was around...

They then landed in an incredibly awkward silence... It was really awkward. And everyone started looking around. Though Iruka swore he saw Kakashi smiling the entire time. Like he enjoyed awkward silences for some reason. He figured out a long time ago that anyone who thought his embarrassment was entertaining deserved a kick in the shin. And he didn't want Naruto to feel singled out.

So he kicked Kakashi, who surprisingly yelped sounding a lot like a puppy that ran into a pole.

"What was that for?" He whined, rubbing his freshly damaged shin.

"You were laughing at me!" Iruka exclaimed. He crossed his arms and glared at Kakashi.

Sasuke was standing to the side wondering how it was possible for his English teacher to have this weird side. It was actually funny how someone who he respected so much turned out to be semi-crazy.

Naruto had moved next to Sasuke and was leaning on the boy laughing at Kakashi's face. The tallest member of the group had his mouth hanging open and his leg bent to his chest. This meant he had to lean over a little, making him about Iruka's height.

"I was not laughing at you!"

"Psh. Don't try to play me, I saw you smile." Iruka narrowed his eyes and pointed at Kakashi.

"Oh, so now it's against the law to be happy?"

"Why would you be happy, that was the most awkward silence ever!" Sasuke was beginning to like coming to the movie store. The "adults" were bickering like children and he had a beautiful boy leaning on him trying to catch his breath.

"I was _happy_ because we saw you. But I'm starting to regret my happiness. Maybe I should just stick to being miserable ar-" He was cut off when Iruka kissed him. It was a whopper of a kiss too. Really! They were-

"Okay, let's go pay for this." Naruto bent over and picked up the forgotten Keanu Reeves film. When he straightened and saw the two men before him he changed his mind. "On second thought, I doubt we're going to watch it anyway." He turned and smiled at Sasuke before putting the DVD back on the shelf.

"You know, I've never seen anyone actually hurt Kakashi before." He said. "At least not physically... Why did Iruka kiss him?"

Naruto snorted and motioned for Sasuke to follow him out of the store. They walked down the sidewalk a ways and then through a park. It was getting dark outside so the sun was setting, but they didn't really mind. Naruto led his companion all the way to an Ice cream shop about twelve blocks away from Instant Replay where they left their guardians to do whatever it was they were going to do.

"He kissed him because of what Kakashi said. The whole "I was happy when I saw you" bit. Iruka's a total sap, so he loves the romantic stuff." The boy shrugged. "So it's likely that they will be busy for a while. But if Kakashi is a bad kisser, Iruka will just call me on my cell "concerned" and "come get me". It's our system."

Sasuke nodded, pretending he knew exactly what Naruto just said. Inside he was laughing at this whole situation, but they were in public so he'd never show it.

"Do you want something?" He asked, looking at what the Parlor had to offer. Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, but I have my money." He reached for his pocket but a hand stopped him.

"Nonsense, I'll get it. Just order." Sasuke put his left arm forward and bowed a little bit, letting Naruto go before him.

"Why thank you, kind sir." He smiled and walked up to the counter to order a vanilla cone with rainbow sprinkles!

"Figures." Sasuke smirked and ordered a plain chocolate cone.

"You're one to talk." Naruto stuck out his tongue as they waited for their ice cream. Sasuke let a little insy-winsy smile on his face for the other boy. This only surprised Naruto a little bit, since he had seen his friend's smile before. But Sasuke just didn't seem the type to show emotion in public.

"Your Ice Creams." The guy behind the counter said. They thanked him and left the parlor, walking and eating their artificially flavored yumminess. It was actually a very relaxing and just a nice time.

_A time that lovers might share..._ Naruto's brain had to go and bring that thought to his brain.

_The perfect time to work on the bet..._ Sasuke thought. It was a very opportune time to work on the whole "relationship" part, right?

"So, Kakashi and Iruka, they make a cute couple don't they?" He tried to start a conversation. This whole comfortable silence was unnerving. He couldn't let his guard down around anyone but his dad. And here he was in the middle of a crowded street not thinking about anything but Naruto. How stupid was that?

"To be honest I wasn't so sure at first. But," he licked some more of his ice cream. "They really do look good together. And my dad really likes him, so it's okay."

"I wouldn't have been able to tell, what with the whole kicking him thing." Naruto laughed again. Sasuke was beginning to really like that sound. Even though he wasn't supposed to. Call it a guilty pleasure.

"Didn't you say Kakashi usually goes out with the people he pisses off?"

"Toosh."(3) This earned yet another beautiful laugh from the blonde.

"You've seen Pretty in Pink? Wow, my vision of your manliness is totally shot."

"You visualize my manliness? I never would have considered you that type of person, Naruto." The boy blushed.

"I live with a closet pervert, it's totally understandable. It still doesn't explain how you've seen Pretty in Pink."

"And yet you've obviously seen it too, seeing as you knew what I was talking about." Naruto waved his hand as if to say he thought nothing of it.

"Well, I live with a psycho closet romantic, obviously I was going to see it at one point or another."

"You can't keep blaming everything on your father, you know." Naruto nodded once and smiled.

"But you have no excuse."

"Kakashi had a thing for Molly Ringwald once."

"Ah." They continued on down the road until they came to the park they'd walked through before. It was now totally dark outside; if it weren't for the lampposts they wouldn't have seen their hands in front of their faces.

But it was thanks to the darkness that Sasuke didn't see Naruto's blush. He knew he shouldn't be, but he was. He really felt special when he was with Sasuke. And that was bad.

When had he met the kid, a week ago? He wasn't supposed to feel like this about someone he's just started talking to seven days ago. That wasn't supposed to happen. Ever. And here's the funny thing. He kind of felt like Sasuke liked him too. But that was really a reason to avoid any feelings right? Because if Sasuke liked him then everyone else that liked Sasuke wouldn't want to even talk to the brunette anymore.

He didn't want someone he felt this strongly about to have to go through every thing that Naruto himself is forced to deal with every day.

That wouldn't be a very effective way to show Sasuke he cared, now would it?

Sasuke was trying really hard to focus on the bet, he was! But...okay, don't think any less of him for this. Something was distracting him. It was a very stupid distraction, but it was keeping his attention. Not really because of what it _was_ but more for the naughty thoughts it led too.

See...what was distracting Sasuke was the little bit of vanilla ice cream dripping from Naruto's lips.

He should not be side tracked by that! But he was! If anything it should have been a motivator towards the bet and he could be thinking of the ways to woo the smaller boy into wanting to date him but no! He was dreaming of the different techniques to use in order to remove said distraction.

Naughty thoughts, no hormones down!

The smaller boy wouldn't mind though, would he? If Sasuke just... licked it off.

Of course he wouldn't mind.

"What do you want to do next? Should we head back?" Naruto stopped and turned to face Sasuke. They were perfectly under a streetlight, meaning they both saw the other's face. The Uchiha finally aware of his companion's blush and Naruto completely conscious of the lust-filled stare from his "friend". "Is something w-wrong?"

Sasuke smirked at the stutter. He found it exciting.

Naruto saw the smirk. He liked it.

"You have something on your chin." Sasuke said. "Let me get it."

So he raised a hand up as if to wipe it away. That's what Naruto thought he was doing at least. But he didn't. Oh no. Instead he grabbed the side of the blonde's face and leaned forward.

And he licked the ice cream off of Naruto's lips.

_So much for not liking him._

_

* * *

_

(1) I got that from a Gilmore Girls rerun I watched yesterday...

(2) I was listening to this song when I wrote this part. I don't know who sings it but I was listening to it on YouTube it was the background for a Harry Potter MV.

(3) This isn't actually the spelling, it's touché. But this is how Duckie pronounces it in the movie. :D

How did you like it? I left you with a cliffy, no? Who thought that last thought? What do you think? Oh! And thank you so much for the reviews and everything. And about the comments on the NejiLee pairing. A) I like this pairing and 6) The position I have Gaara in in the later chapters prevents me from setting him up with Neji or Lee. Sorry if that disapoints you but don't stop reading just because of that, please? Reviews are much appreciated, as always.

Much Love.


	6. Couples, Couples Everywhere

We've passed the fifty mark on the reviews! Thank you all so much!!

**Chapter Five: Couples, Couples Everywhere**

Annie was Pissed. With a purposely capitalized "P" because that's how Pissed she was.

Not only had her 6-month boyfriend just thrown her to the curb and left her with a temporary cannon of emptiness that will be the end of her until she finally got some Rocky Road, but she was stuck working the night shift for some girl that went out with her girlfriend for the night! Life was not fair.

And to make it worse, she'd been watching these two guys kissing for almost an hour now! They barely came up for air. How inconsiderate. Could they not see her inner turmoil? Crimony.

That's her boss coming over now. What's that he's saying? He wants her to stop them or what? Oh, or she's fired. There's motivation for ya. What would she do without the minimum wage and filthy scowls she'd come to know and hate so much?

Get another job, she supposed. But that would involve the risk of actually doing work. She couldn't deal with that _and_ her eventual emotional demise preparations all at once! The torture!

So, Annie dragged her ass all the way around the counter and .003 feet over to the guys playing tonsil hockey. At a very big risk to herself (her therapist was so hearing about this at their next session) she tapped the shorter one on the shoulder.

"You're scaring the customers, man." On the inside - though it was impossible to see because of that hard ass emo look - Annie was crying of the evils of her boss because he said she had to stop the yaoi goodness. The glare that the taller guy sent her also influenced her (totally hidden and not flowing down her face in any way) tears.

"Oh, sorry." Annie chose to focus on this man. He was only five inches taller than her and nowhere near as scary. "I've got to go anyway."

And he stalked past Annie, motioning the other man to follow. Which he did, but not before glaring so fierce fully at Annie she was almost vaporized.

Her life sucked.

Outside, Kakashi leaned in again, but Iruka stopped him.

"That was a fifty-freaking-minute kiss. No one is that horny."

He proceeded to pull out his keys that Naruto somehow snuck into his pocket and opened up the door to his car.

Kakashi crossed his arms and put them on the edge of the door, smirking at Iruka.

"You would think that." Iruka laughed at the other man.

"I _know_ that." He grinned and put one foot in the car. "But if you want to prove me wrong, you can pick me up at nine on Saturday. Naruto and Sasuke could hang out for a while, right?"

"I'm sure they could," he smiled - half-heartedly, of course. He'd forgotten about the reason he'd first met Iruka for a moment or fifty - and gave Iruka a quick good-bye kiss. "And I'd love to take you out."

They smiled at one another and Naruto's guardian got into his car. Kakashi closed the door and headed to his own vehicle. Both still had million watt grins on as they pulled out their cell phones and called their sons. They also simultaneously decided that movie stores were their new favorite place to go.

Inside the store Annie was looking out the window with a quivering lip. Life really wasn't fair.

----

Thank God it's dark out. That was all that could be said for the two boys in the park. Sure it wouldn't stop them from being seen - they were under a lamp, after all - but it would stop them from seeing the looks on anyone's faces.

Spectators would have seen two boys looking into each other's eyes. Normal, right?

Mostly, except for the fact that one boy was still licking the other one's mouth! With their eyes wide open and _staring_ at each other. And the only reason the shorter boy wasn't pummeling the taller one was because...

He liked it.

He shouldn't, he knows! He just had a little conversation with himself about not liking Sasuke like that and leaving him be so no one would diss him like they hurt Naruto. Well, so much for that idea! And they aren't even technically kissing yet!

Scratch that last.

Sasuke liked the way Naruto tasted. It was like sunshine and vanilla ice cream - all right, so you can't technically taste sunshine, but he imagined Naruto to be as close to it as possible. Really, maybe it was just because sunshine secretly made Sasuke feel a hundred times better than the night that everyone suspected to be his natural habitat. And Naruto made Sasuke feel fantastic, just like the sun.

That's why he kissed him. Just a chaste kiss at first. He wouldn't normally be this precautious but something about this guy made him feel he must. However, once he realized Naruto wouldn't push him away the kiss grew a whole lot more... intimate. Pretty soon they were out of the light and against the tree that was almost directly behind it.

Neither wanted to think or care how they got there, it would ruin the moment. Damn that human need for air.

They broke apart, panting and just stood there, staring again. Sasuke was wondering how he'd never had a kiss like that before and Naruto...

Well, he saw the sparks.

It was just like the books and stories he found as a kid. Fireworks were going off all around them, his head was buzzing, his fingers were tingling and he thought _Wow. This must be that first true love thing Iruka's always on about._

Alas, all good - perfect, brilliant - things must come to an end. To some extent anyway.

Naruto jolted from the tree he was leaning on, accidentally pushing his hips into Sasuke's. His back pocket was vibrating, but he was to focused on that smirk. Damn it's sexy.

"Are you going to answer that?" Sasuke asked. How the hell was he so in control? Didn't he feel the same way Naruto did?

"Yeah." Just as his hand reached back for the phone, something beat him to it.

"You are to slow. I'll get it for you." And the Uchiha's hand slid down the pocket ever-so-slowly. He pulled out Naruto's cell and flipped it open, pushing it against the boy's ear when his own phone vibrated. Luckily for him (or unluckily, depending on how one looks at it) it was in his front pocket. This meant that he had an excuse to step back from Naruto and recompose himself.

Obviously he'd never show it, what with the whole "Uchiha" thing, but he was very close to squealing. If he was capable of squealing, that is. But he's not 'cause he's dignified and stuff.

They were speaking with their guardians... damn them! Naruto and Sasuke were all nice and let them have their moment, now what?! They call and ruin _this_ moment. What jerks.

Nonetheless they did have valid reasons for calling. Something about responsibility for their children and such. But once everyone was informed of where to pick whom up, the two boys were left with yet another awkward silence. Now, what's the only way to effectively stop a silence like that and start up a conversation?

Jokes, of course.

"You aren't going to kick me are you?" Sasuke almost sighed with relief when Naruto laughed out loud.

"No, that's strictly an Iruka thing." He stopped laughing and almost stopped smiling with the next statement. "But I think I have reason to question you, don't I?"

_I knew this was coming. Okay, what am I going to tell him? _Well...that's what Sasuke normally would have thought in this situation. He'd think up some more lies to spin into his web and get the guy into bed within a week.

But he didn't want to do that with Naruto.

_NO, I mean I don't need to do that with this dobe. He'll be-_

"Why did you kiss me?" The question was delivered with such a timid voice that Sasuke was taken back. Wasn't Naruto supposed to be this crazy, hyperactive knucklehead? He was meant to be loud and strong not quiet and second-guessing himself! He had to reassure the boy.

But only so the bet wasn't screwed up. Don't ask him how Naruto's insecurities could screw up the bet, it just could. Besides, it isn't reassurance if it's lies. Ignore the guilt.

"Because I like you, Naruto."

"Oh..." This was news. Not that Naruto suspected Sasuke to be the kind of person to kiss randomly! But...well, they'd just met seven days ago! It was kind of fast.

Not that he was denying the fact that he really liked Sasuke too. He did like him, a lot! This conversation was getting redundant. Okay, so the facts Naruto already knew about this...relationship with Sasuke were that One, he sensed something between them. It was strong enough to have him constantly dreaming about the other. Two, assuming that Sasuke isn't a liar - he liked Naruto back. Three, they'd both love to take their relationship further...but...

"I know that we more or less just met, so I understand if you want me to "buy you a drink first" so to speak." Sasuke read his mind, causing Naruto to smile.

"Yeah, I'd like that." Black eyes caught blue and they reinstated the staring contest. It was more than magical. They felt as if they were melting into each other, molding into one being. One heart...one soul...one more kiss.

At least, they would have had another kiss if someone wasn't flashing their headlights at them. Damn those are bright. It was almost blinding. Who was that?

Oh, it was Iruka. He was smirking that death-for-all smirk again. This couldn't be good.

Over on the other side of the park, Kakashi was beeping his horn, trying to get Sasuke's attention. The boy chuckled and looked back at his soon-to-be much more than a friend.

"Until tomorrow, then." Carefully he picked up Naruto's hand and kissed it. The perfect ending to their night. It was the kind of ending that only a fairytale would have.

In most cases anyway.

----

The ride back to Iruka and Naruto's house was oddly quiet. Then again, both were completely occupied in their own thoughts of their prince charmings.

When Iruka pulled up into their driveway and stopped the car, neither made a move to get out. Instead they turned to look at each other and cracked up laughing. Not that they really knew why, but did they need too? If you just pretty much got swept off your feet, wouldn't you be just a little giddy?

Yeah, I thought so.

--------

However, on the other side of town, all those streets away, the car ride was less than peaceful.

"I'm out." Sasuke looked startled over at his dad.

"What do you mean?" Kakashi didn't take his eyes off of the road and he was gripping the steering wheel so hard it's a wonder it didn't shatter.

"I mean that I don't want any part in your bet." He sighed and loosened his hold on the wheel. "And you should really rethink this. I saw you in the park, you're going to fall this time."

Sasuke clenched his jaw, trying not to lash out. This was his dad after all he could very well make him stop the bet. Although Sasuke knew Kakashi would never do that, it didn't stop the fact that he didn't _want_ to yell at the man. He'd never admit it though, that would mean he was getting soft.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Don't even try it. You know damn well what I'm talking about." _But I don't want to know what you're saying._

The Uchiha was attempting to keep his breathing in check. He didn't think Kakashi would allow him to blow up and then go anywhere with Naruto. This was the first time the older man had ever refused to help with the bet though...It was so frustrating! Why wouldn't he-

Iruka. That's why. He must like him, which is why he would rather his own son go bankrupt than ruin his chances? Some dad.

"You selfish bastard." That took Kakashi by surprise. His eyes widened slightly and he looked over at his son.

"What?"

"You just want to get into Iruka's pants and you don't want to blow it so you'd rather me loose a thousand dollars. If you want some action, you could just go to that whore house down the street."

"That's not it at all." Kakashi's voice was alarmingly calm and he sounded as if he were laying down a law. "I actually _like_ this guy, which isn't exactly common for me."

"Yeah, you like his ass." This was probably the closest to striking Sasuke (with the intentions of hurting him, that is) Kakashi has ever come. Why couldn't the boy see what was so clearly in front of him? It was going to kill both him and Naruto.

"Actually, I was thinking more personality wise. The ass is just a bonus." They pulled into the driveway and didn't loose a minute jumping out of the car and up to the door. Before Sasuke could open it Kakashi grabbed his arm and spun him around.

"You and Naruto are going to be hanging out on Saturday while Iruka and I go on a date. If you find that you like him more than just for the bet, stop it. We can deal with the thousand dollars." He skillfully ignored the glare being sent his way. It wasn't like it was the first time Sasuke ever hated his guts.

"I don't like him. He's just easy cash." Kakashi let go of his son's arm and they entered the house. Immediately, Sasuke was upstairs and as far away from the world as possible.

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

But in his room, with the lights off and curtains drawn, Sasuke was lying with his head buried in his pillows trying to forget everything a certain blonde made him feel that night. It would be dangerous to get attached, anyway. Even if he did throw the bet it would still get back to Naruto somehow that the only reason he started going out with him was for money so he might as well get the thousand dollars.

He wasn't going to worry about what Kakashi said. It's just a phase; it's not like his guardian really feels anything for Iruka. Just like he was sure this thing with Naruto would pass.

It just had to.

-----

Have you ever tried to get someone to stop drowning you before? It's really hard, isn't it? Especially when the person is-

"Drowning me in your drool! That's gross. Why don't you just go ask him out already?"

Kiba bonked Lee on the head as he shouted at him some more. Naruto was leaning on Shikamaru and laughing his ass off while Shikamaru was looking towards the sky wondering what he ever did to get these friends.

"I can not just ask him out like that. It would be rude."

"Oh, and checking him out is proper manners?"

"Shut up!" Lee went to choke Kiba and they ended up having a fight in the middle of the schoolyard. It was officially Friday after school and those two had been fighting about this all week.

"Kiba is right Lee. It's been forever since you squashed Neji in the woods. Why don't you just ask him to go to a movie or something?" Naruto suggested. In all honesty this fight was getting old. They had it everyday, every time they saw each other.

"I don't want to go too fast."

"You've been gawking at his ass for six days now. Just go!"

"I'll ask him out when you ask Hinata out, dog boy!"

Thump.

"That's different and you know it!"

Tumble.

"How is it different?"

"Uh, guys?"

Boom.

"Because Hinata doesn't know I like her!"

"Guys?"

More tumbling.

"Then tell her, stupid!!"

"You're about to fall down the hill, morons!"

"Wh-AAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

Kiba and Lee had rolled all the way to the hill that leads to the school gates. And instead of stopping and heading their friend's warnings, what did they do? They crashed.

And landed right in front of the Hyuuga car.

"Look, Hinata. A lover's quarrel. Isn't that cute?" The friends looked up to see none other than the objects of their tiff.

"K-Kiba? What are y-you doing?"

"Oh! Hey Hinata. Erm...We're not doing anything. Just-"

"Neji would you like to go to the movies with me tonight?"

"Now?!!? You choose to ask him now?!" Hinata was giggling at the dog boy's antics. It was very amusing. Though she couldn't help but feel slightly jealous. Her cousin just got here and already the boy he liked asked him out, but does Kiba ever ask her out? No. Of course not. Stupid boys.

Neji, instead of answering right away like Lee wanted him too, put out a hand and helped bushy brows up. He dusted him off and then looked at his eyes.

"Would you like to properly ask me out now?" Without moving a muscle in his face Lee blushed like a mad man.

"N-Neji. Will you go to the movies with me tonight?" He all but shouted at the boy. They could vaguely hear a stampede in the background, though that was of no importance to them.

"I would love to Lee. And I'll be sure to wear my tight pants so you have a better picture, okay?" Kiba started laughing so hard he needed to lean on Hinata. The stampede was coming closer; they all realized to late that it was Naruto.

Amazingly he stopped right before he barreled into Kiba. And Shikamaru appeared behind him seconds later. Though he didn't run and scare all the other students.

"Are you guys okay?" How was this guy not out of breath? He just ran close to a mile in seven seconds! He was acting as if he'd been there the whole time!

"We're fine. Aren't we Lee?" He asked in a very suggestive tone.

"Shut up!" They started to fight again. Shikamaru rolled his eyes and walked away, muttering something about finding normal people. Whatever those are.

"Mind telling me what happened?" Naruto looked to Hinata since Neji decided to stand mere centimeters away from Kiba and Lee's faces to see what their reactions would be.

"W-well, Kiba and Lee c-crashed and Lee asked Neji out."

"No way! He did, congratulations, bushy brow!" When Lee turned to say thank you for whatever he was being congratulated about his lips met Neji's. Neji didn't let him go either. Lee tried to back away and apologize, but Neji grabbed the back of his head and held him close. So of course, the only logical thing would be for Lee to give in right? That's what he'd blame it on when Kiba asked later anyway. Logic.

Dog boy backed away slowly. This was getting really personal. And since he was _backing_ away he didn't see poor Hinata and walked right into her.

"Oh, sorry Hinata!" He jumped around and started apologizing to her face to face.

"I-it's okay." They made eye contact, but blushed and both looked away. It was totally cute.

And all this pushed Naruto to his decision. If Lee was going to get his man, then Kiba could get his. Er. No, Hinata could get her m- you know what? Whatever.

"Aw, Hinata is cute Kiba. I can see why you like her." Game.

Kiba turned to the blonde with a look of unbelievable anger. If Naruto didn't know that he was helping his friend he would be quivering.

"Y-you like me?" Set.

Instead of glaring at Naruto, Kiba's look changed to one of fear/embarrassment and he shifted his body so he was fully facing Hinata. He took a big gulp and nodded, still blushing.

"I l-like you too." Match.

Damn Naruto was good.

They smiled at each other and Kiba asked her out to dinner for later that night. Hinata nodded shyly and they blushed but hugged each other. Naruto grinned and started to trek up the hill to the building. He had to find Iruka and tell him the good news!

At least, he was going to try.

"I just saw your friend Shikamaru making out with some blonde chick. Mind explaining?" Naruto laughed at the voice behind him. He hadn't heard it all day, which was a first. He had been starting to worry.

"That's Ino. He's been after her for a while, it's about time they got together." Sasuke smiled a little bit and slung an arm over Naruto's shoulders.

"They were very into it. I'm regretting forgetting my backpack in favor of finding you."

"What?"

"Well, it was either get all of my books and stuff them into my bag then run like a maniac to try and catch you _or_ leave my bag and go back to get it after I saw you."

"But we didn't talk all day."

"I said _saw_. Meaning I was stalking you."

"That makes me feel safe." Sasuke shrugged and leaned more on Naruto, forcing the boy to stop with the added weight.

"As well, it should. That means that all the other possible stalkers are too scared to come near you."

"Good point. If I'm going to have anyone after my used tissues, I'd want it to be you."

"Exactly." He smiled just a little bit more and put his forehead on Naruto's. "Sorry I haven't been talking much today. A lot on my mind, you know?"

Naruto smiled and shrugged, but leaned in to kiss the other boy. When they pulled back and looked at each other, it was as if the whole world melted away. Just the two of them were left and that was perfectly fine with them!

"What do we have here? Public Displays of Affection? You two are in trouble." At least they would have been, if it was really a threat that found them.

"Iruka! I was just coming to see you." Naruto started flailing about and trying to look innocent. Sasuke just gave up trying because he's too sexy to look innocent.

"Sure you were." But the English teacher just ignored him and turned around to run away. "Hurry up if you want a ride!" He shouted behind him.

Naruto grinned and grabbed Sasuke's hand before chasing after his dad, who was surprisingly fast actually. They only barely got into the car before he started pulling out. Sasuke literally shut the door while he was backing up.

"Looks like you're getting slow, old man!" Iruka laughed.

"Yeah? Tell that to Sasuke." He said this because Sasuke was trying really hard to catch his breath and not look like he was winded at the same time. It wasn't working out very well at all. So Naruto started to cough in an attempt to hide his laughter.

This got him a shove from the Uchiha and a glare to boot! That could not go unpunished.

Here is some dirt that no one but Naruto knows about Sasuke...

He's very ticklish.

Don't tell anyone, okay? Because he doesn't like to show emotions at all but if you tickle him in just the right spot you can get him to smile really big. There was a spot right above his left hip, which was in perfect range for Naruto to poke...right...now!

"Ha!" Sasuke quickly covered his mouth and tried to act as if he wasn't grinning like a madman.

This didn't fool Naruto though! He saw right through the guise and started to full out tickle his boyfriend.

Oh, didn't I mention? I thought it was obvious. Sasuke asked Naruto to be his boyfriend on Tuesday. He passed Naruto a note during Homeroom and got him to meet up at the chapel during lunch where he popped the question! Sure he felt totally guilty afterwards (though he didn't know why) but it was definitely going to be worth it. He told himself that every time Naruto smiled at him. Which was very often, come to think of it.

"Okay! Naruto, let him breathe." Iruka had pulled to a stop in front of Sasuke's house and turned around to smile at the boy. "We'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

Naruto climbed up to the front seat, "accidentally" putting his butt in Sasuke's face, which earned him a good push. Everyone said their goodbyes and once Naruto was sitting upright, Sasuke kissed the top of his head. He ran all the way to his door because of some random burst of energy he always got after spending time with Naruto.

Kakashi was not home yet, meaning Sasuke had the house to himself. It was pretty nice. Especially because they just got a new DVD package with the bloodiest, goriest, scariest scenes available to man at the moment. He could plan out tomorrow night.

Once again, he forced that feeling of guilt away from him. He didn't need to be feeling sorry for anyone. He was doing fine on his own. This kind of bet thrilled him.

...The other times he did it. Now he was just trying to keep his thousand dollars.

_Its just money_. Sasuke shook his head and picked out the first movie to watch. Stupid inner voices, what do they know?

* * *

Stupid Sasuke! He can't admit it, can he? Oh! I'd like to apologize now for anything that looks like I tried to fix it but it didn't work and is now even more messed up than it was before because my computer is on the fritz and this is the last I may be able to get out of it for today. Oh! What shall I do? Please Review!! Thank you!

* * *


	7. Wishes

Do you guys have any idea how cool you are? Thank you so much for the reviews!!

**Chapter Six: Wishes**

It wasn't like Iruka had never dated before. In fact, he was very popular among the ladies _and _the men. But for some reason all possible knowledge he gained from those dates just flew out the window with Kakashi.

Iruka wanted so badly to be charming and witty when around him, like he had been with his other beau. However, whoever made the comment "If you wish it, it will be" for the first time had no clue what they were talking about. And it would really help his situation if that person popped out of nowhere and told Iruka what the hell to do! So far tonight he'd wished for:

1 - A quieter son.

2 - A waffle iron.

3 - A giant gaping whole in the Earth.

4 - A teddy bear.

5 - And Fireworks.

Did any of those come true?

No, they did not. But wait, what would you know about his wishes? Lets back up and explain.

When Kakashi and Sasuke first came over, everything was fine. Just the usual first-date-after-that-whopper-of-a-kiss-jitters. Then, Naruto for some unknown reason that would surely get his ass grounded were it anyone but Iruka, shouted very loudly and surely to anyone that could hear (meaning everyone from their house to Australia) very mean-person-like that Kakashi shouldn't go to far because Iruka bruised like a peach.

Hence the quieter son wish.

A little while later, they were still in the car, though Iruka had no idea where they were going. Anyway, their conversation died down and someone - he was pretty sure it was Kakashi - started fumbling with the radio. Iruka was looking out the window watching the scenery and suddenly craved waffles.

He made this longing known to Kakashi who let out a single bark-like laugh and said he was sorry but didn't have a waffle iron on him. This, in itself, was depressing but then to put an even bigger damper on his mood, a commercial for Albert's Waffle House came on the radio. Iruka groaned and moped for his lack of waffles. Then Kakashi laughed at him and called him... _cute._

Hence the waffle iron wish.

Iruka finally found out where Kakashi was taking him. The carnival. It was a random carnival that appeared out of thin air but funnel cakes and balloons by any other name, yeah? Now, this carnival had something that every good carnival must - a Fun House.

And, because of his inner desire to be suave and cool, Iruka failed to mention to Kakashi that he was terrified of Fun Houses. The clowns and mirrors and skeletons falling from the ceilings (which he wasn't totally convinced were fake, have you seen what the midget bear wrestler was capable of?). Anyway, so he didn't tell Kakashi and of course, the first place they go is the Fun House. And Iruka practically shit his pants.

So it was completely logical - due to the look on his face and the arm guiding him out of the Fun House - that the bearded lady come up to them and start talking as if Iruka was three! Then she turns to Kakashi and says it was so kind of him to donate his time to "people like that".

To sum it all up, the freaking _bearded lady_ thought Iruka was retarded! And for the second time that night Kakashi laughed at him.

Hence the giant gaping hole in the Earth wish.

After their run in with the not-so-bearded-anymore-lady (guess what Iruka has as a souvenir) Kakashi decided to cheer his date up with some games. Everyone likes prizes, right?

The first one up was the baseball game. They had to knock over the three bottles with a baseball.

Well sadly Iruka was so distraught by this time that instead of hitting the milk bottles, he hit the guy in charge of the booth in a not-so-pleasant part of his anatomy. Then, realizing what he'd done only after the guy shouted, Iruka had to drag Kakashi away because he was staring in admiration.

"Nice shot." Kakashi exclaimed, following the other mortified man away from the games. Usually when someone throws the ball they can get a toy.

And Iruka had never wanted something to hug more in his life!

Hence the teddy bear wish.

The final wish was a lot nicer than the other wishes had been. It was a wonderful ending compared to what the rest of his night had been like. When Iruka pulled Kakashi away from the games, he somehow took them to the Ferris wheel.

So, Kakashi figured Iruka wanted to get on and pulled his date to the line where they waited and Iruka didn't notice because he was horribly put down by all the awful events that had made up his first date with Kakashi.

But once they were seated and moving his world started to come into focus and he looked around in surprise.

"What are we doing on here?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow at him.

"You're the one that dragged me to the line, remember?" Iruka blushed and made an 'o' with his face. Kakashi chuckled and for some reason the other man took it as an I'm-never-taking-this-loser-out-on-a-date-again chuckle so he started to apologize immediately.

"I'm really sorry that this day turned out so horribly I'm not normally such a loser but for some reason I just turn out that way when I'm around you and I'm really, _really_ sorry."

Kakashi blinked.

Then blinked again.

Then realized what Iruka had just said.

Then started to laugh.

They were at the top of the Ferris wheel now.

Then Kakashi pulled Iruka's head towards him and kissed the top of it.

He pulled Iruka into a hug and they stayed there for a while. A very long time actually, longer than any normal Ferris wheel ride would have lasted.

"We're sorry to ruin your evenings ladies and gents but the ride is stuck. You may be there for a while."

But looking out over the carnival, at all the lights and sounds and smells, Iruka couldn't help but think that being forced to stay at the top of the world with Kakashi wasn't such a bad thing. There was only one thing that could have possibly made it better.

Hence the fireworks wish.

* * *

Now, as you may or may not know when the parents go out the kids party. Sometimes. That wasn't exactly the case for Naruto and Sasuke, but it was close enough.

For as any cheesy romance novel would say, "Their hearts partied as long as they were together" or something of that mushy sort. And this was mostly true.

Or would be if Naruto's heart was beating. But it wasn't. He was too terrified to be thinking about his life! That wasn't as important as disappearing and not watching the horrifying scene before him.

There...was...so...much...blood! The killer had just hooked a guy to a fish line and wa-

"AAH!" Naruto screamed and pushed further into Sasuke's side. This was too much for him, but his boyfriend seemed to be loving it.

In fact, he was loving it a little too much, Naruto would need to have a talk with him about that.

"You know for a dude you're pretty easily frightened."

"Easily frightened? Are you freaking kidding me? Did you see what he did with the needles?"

"Hn, yeah. That was the best part." Naruto groaned and shook his head against the others shoulder. Sasuke chuckled and turned off the T.V with the remote. He wrapped his arms around the smaller boy and hugged him tight. "I won't let the monsters get you."

Naruto pushed them over so they were lying down on the couch and he curled up on top of Sasuke. They stayed like that for a while, both in their own thoughts.

-

_What if this is going to fast?_ One thought. He'd only just met the other boy and this was a little soon for them to trust each other. It might scare his boyfriend away.

And what if he wanted to do something... like _that_? And obviously Naruto would refuse which might make Sasuke leave.

And what if Naruto didn't want to refuse? He really, _really_ liked Sasuke and... well it's not like anything horrible could happen if they did it, right? It would only bring them closer to each other.

Not everyone would treat him as the bullies he grew up with. His friends and Iruka were proof of that. Plus, Sasuke seemed to really like him back!

Not everyone would refuse to look at him as a person.

Not everyone would be after Naruto just for some horrible reason.

This is what he had to keep telling himself. After all, it wouldn't be the first time those people did it to him.

_Naruto was fourteen, a freshmen just entering high school..._

_"Hey! Watch out!" Someone pushed him out of the way of a skateboarder and into the grass in front of the school._

_"Thanks." He smiled as the upperclassman realized their position and got off of Naruto._

_"No problem. I'm Cyrus, what's your name?" Naruto blushed and took the offered hand._

_"I'm Naruto." They smiled at each other._

_After that Cyrus and Naruto had more than one encounter. And eventually Cyrus asked Naruto to go to a party at a friend's house._

_Obviously, being new to the high school and everything, Naruto immediately agreed and that Friday night he ended up in the worst predicament of his life. _

_Some of the jocks on the football team got totally smashed and told the blonde of Cyrus's true intentions. He was going to "nail" Naruto for a thousand bucks because of some war Naruto's birth father had gotten into with the team's dads._

_And Naruto ran, ignoring the mocking laughter following him through the streets. Ignoring Cyrus's cry of pain at loosing the money, he ran all the way to Shikamaru's house where he knew his friends were having a sleep over that night._

_Shikamaru sighed and hugged the younger boy. _

_Lee declared a sour pummeling for the entire football team._

_Kiba made some joke about Naruto's ass being worth $1,000._

_All in all they cheered Naruto up._

_The first time, at least. _

_But the second time, it didn't work so well..._

What do they say, though? The third time is the charm.

But that second time was Naruto's first "official" case of teenage depression, so said the shrinks. They say it is completely normal for people to be so cruel.

And as he looked down at the sleeping face of his boyfriend, before joining the other in dreamland, he silently wished for a sweeter ending.

After all, he was a firm believer in happy endings.

-

Before officially leaving reality Sasuke felt something wet on his face. He blinked his eyes open and touched it, then hugged Naruto tighter.

Sasuke was crying.

The last time he'd cried had been when he first met Kakashi and was scared of all people. But Kakashi was able to calm him down and make everything better. What else are dads for?

The only thing that was bothering him was that he couldn't figure out why he was crying. There wasn't anything that scared him anymore. And nothing that he really had been thinking about, except...

He once again hugged Naruto and rolled over so the other boy was against the back of the couch. Then Sasuke buried his face in the blonde locks and let a few more tears fall, but hiding them from the world. Hiding them from everyone but Naruto.

That's why he was crying after all, because of his "boyfriend". But what did he mean when he called Naruto his boyfriend?

Technically the definition was significant other or something. And Sasuke realized that somewhere along the line, in the two weeks he'd known Naruto, he did actually think of him like that.

This was not very fortunate for the brunette, now was it?

No! What the hell was he thinking? Naruto was... he was...

Beautiful.

Sasuke realized as he looked down at the sleeping boy that it would be difficult to say the least to leave Naruto once the bet was over.

The other bets hadn't been like this at all. They were quick and easy and beneficial. They made his life seem just a little better than it had the month before every time. But all that he'd gotten from Naruto were headaches and weakness.

Look at him, he was crying! He's Sasuke-_fucking_-Uchiha. He didn't cry, no matter what! Apparently, the exception was when he was contemplating his relationship with Naruto.

Okay, time to do what always made life seem a little simpler. Make a list.

On the one hand, Sasuke had the bet. Those jerks that he made it with wouldn't willingly let him forget it and he was sure that they'd find a way to tell Naruto about it. This would be a reason to continue with the bet.

On the other hand, Sasuke had Naruto. The hyperactive, do-do brained, hilarious, gorgeous, knucklehead that brought him confusion and weird speaking inner voices. Did that sound like a reason to stop the bet?

Well, it really shouldn't but for some reason it did sound like that to Sasuke.

Next item on the list was the money. A thousand dollars was more than he'd gotten on the other bets, and it could definitely move Kakashi and himself far enough away that he was sure he could forget Naruto. Not to mention buy some impressive gadgets.

But was Naruto only worth a thousand bucks?

Ugh, stupid question. Next item on the list is...

Kakashi. His guardian who had been there for him since Sasuke was only five. And Kakashi had stuck by and even helped him with some of the bets before. But this time, he'd dropped out. He didn't want anything to do with this particular case because of someone he said he might actually like not just for a quick screw.

Could he be so selfish as to ruin the first positive relationship it seemed Kakashi had ever been in? And didn't Kakashi say something about them being able to pay off the thousand dollars?

Whatever, so far this list was not helping. It was only giving him a bigger migraine.

The final item on the list was Sasuke's own pride. What would everyone say about him if he dropped out of a scheme for love? He was an Uchiha! He had quite the rep on the streets and going soft wasn't on his agenda for anytime soon.

All right, so far he had two reasons for continuing and two reasons for stopping.

Damn! Lists usually helped him.

Maybe it had something to with the way Naruto smelled tonight. Or how warm the other boy was. What ever happened was putting Sasuke to sleep...

He had one last thought before he drifted off though. He wished that he'd never met Naruto. That he'd fallen in love with someone less complicated.

* * *

The next week was Spring Break for the high school. The time when everyone goes off on cruises or to Florida for a week and comes back with a tan and looking fantastic.

Well, almost everyone anyway. Unfortunately for Naruto and Iruka this week ment volunteering at the local day care because the parents dropped their kids off to go and have parties and stuff.

"Are you ready, teach?" Naruto asked as they walked through the glass door into Barney's Play Place and immediately heard the familiar screams of fifty toddlers running around the play area.

"As I'll ever be." Iruka muttered. Almost like they could smell them or something the eyes of the little ones in the room all turned to the pair in the doorway as soon as the doors shut. Three little ones in particular shouted Naruto's name and ran over to greet him.

"Hey! Team Konohomaru! What's going on?" So Naruto went off with them, leaving all the rest of the kids to Iruka.

Luckily, since they were the only two on duty that week (I told you _everyone_ goes off during Spring Break) they could invite people to come help. That's why Shikamaru, Kiba, Lee, Neji, Hinata, Ino, Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi all came in with snacks and sleeping bags and the like.

"Need some help?" Kakashi asked, looking at all the eyes still focused on the new arrivals. He also vaguely noticed the parents sneaking out the back while all the eyes were turned.

Then Naruto dropped a paint can while playing with his three buddies. And like a rocket they were off. Screaming, jumping, throwing solid objects, throwing the babies, running, running into walls, running into the volunteers (whether they were willingly volunteering or not), running into each other, running into the play slide, etc. All in all, it was utter chaos.

"Nope." Iruka smiled and pulled out a bright pink whistle with flowers all over it. (He totally borrowed it from the usual caretaker it wasn't his, I swear) and a shrill scream quieted all the little kids. "Now, everyone listen because I'm only going to say this once! You all know who I am right?"

"Iruka!!" A little girl with green hair and eyes came up and hugged his leg.

"Hello Lotus." He patted her on the head and looked back up at all the other children. "Does anyone not know my name?" They shook their heads. "Good."

He pointed to each of his guests and said their names out loud. Then the chaos continued and being completely unfazed by it apparently, Iruka took everyone back to the kitchen and told them to put everything away wherever it was meant to go.

"But Iruka, shouldn't we be at least a little concerned with what the kids are doing?" Kakashi asked, slipping his sleeping bag into the slot designated.

"Naruto can handle them while we get organized. Now, here is what your jobs are going to be."

He assigned Ino, Sakura, and Hinata to anyone age one or younger. Kiba, Shikamaru, Lee and Kiba were in charge of Arts and Crafts (and they needed four people for obvious reasons). Sasuke was going to help Naruto with the outdoors stuff. And Kakashi and Iruka would handle whatever else was left.

They walked out of the kitchens together to see even more paint and chibi footballs flying with Naruto completely oblivious to them all, still hanging with Team Konohomaru.

"This should be interesting." Ino said. They nodded and headed off to their jobs.

Interesting is an understatement.

* * *

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!! I'm sorry! I should have updated last week but I was really busy with a HUGE english project and then I got grounded this week! Bleh! But I'm going to try and update TWO chapters tonight because I really like this daycare thing and it's mega important to the story. Ciao!


	8. It's Getting Hot In Here

Thanks for waiting and bearing with me! And for all of the reviews! That is sooo cool! And I think it's time to renew my disclaimers.

Sadly (oh so sadly) I own nothing but action figures, manga books, and DVD's of the fabulous Naruto.

And I warn all about my OOC characters and loads of YAOI!!

**Chapter Seven: It's Getting Hot in Here**

_Interesting was an understatement._

"Okay, batter up!"

"I'm Kicking, Naruto."

"Alright then, kicker up."

"He always misses, you should call him a loser."

"Don't be a jerk!"

"Fart-sniffer!"

"Enough! Just kick the stupid ball already!"

Everyone blinked and looked at Sasuke.

"Jeez, they're only kids man."

"Yeah, lighten up!"

"Kiba! You're supposed to be helping everyone with Arts and Crafts!"

"I'm going, I'm going!!"

* * *

_Okay, this is the big one. _She tightened her grip a little and focused all of her energy on it. This task was the hardest she'd ever have to face. Until she got married of course. But right now, her life was riding on this decision. It could make or break her.

_To undo the diaper, or not to undo the diaper, that is the question._

Sakura held the baby out at arms length as she thought over he dilemma. This was, after all, the fattest baby in the joint and a playground-pooping champ.

"Forehead! Just change the diaper already!" Ino screamed while trying to pull twins out of her hair.

"Why don't you do it? I'll take them." Ino rolled her eyes.

"No, thank you."

"I'll take him Sakura." Hinata gently took the baby out of the other girls hands. "Could you watch after those three for me?"

She motioned towards three children who she already got to sleep.

"Sure, thanks." When Hinata turned her head Sakura stuck her tongue out at Ino, who flicked her off.

Not a good idea around kids.

The twins let go of her hair and began to practice lifting the middle finger. First at each other, then at Ino, then at Iruka all the way across the room.

"Ino! What are you teaching them?" He shouted. Ino's jaw was hanging open though so she couldn't respond.

"They aren't even one yet! How can they be so smart?" Kakashi asked, kicking open another sleeping bag.

"Those are Shikamaru's cousins."

"Ah, that explains it."

And when they finished rolling out all the sleeping bags, Iruka pulled out his totally borrowed pink, flowery whistle.

-

"Okay, two outs gone. The bases are loaded. They need two runs to win. Konohomaru's ready. Here's the pitch... and-!"

Naruto pitched the ball after finishing his lovely commentary. Konohomaru sent it flying over Naruto's head and all the way to the sand box where Sasuke was.

"Unbelievable!" Naruto shouted, throwing his hands in the air. "A home run! Konohomaru won the game!"

Everyone started to shout and cheer until Iruka's whistle interrupted them. One little boy shouted in joy knowing that the whistle at this time of day meant snack time. All of the kids ran to the kitchen where Iruka and Kakashi waited with COOKIES!!

Naruto looked around to make sure they were all inside and his eyes stopped on Sasuke, still playing with two of the little girls. They were building sand castles. He grinned and almost swooned. Who knew Sasuke was such a softy?

After another moment or five of spying Naruto jogged over and squatted down so he was eye level with the three of them. (Sasuke was sitting in the sand with them).

"Hey, Michiko!" He said, recognizing a little girl with three-sizes to big glasses that kept falling down and she had to push them back to get a good picture.

"Naruto!" She shouted and jumped to give him a hug. "Look, onee-san! It's Naruto!" The other girl looked up and waved.

"What's up?" She asked.

"Actually, it's snack time." Both little pairs of eyes grow 10 miles wide and after shouting goodbye and quickly hugging both boys, they ran all the way to the kitchen door where Kakashi let them in.

Sighing again, Naruto pulled off his shoes and socks and rolled up his pants. Little kids weren't the only ones who could have fun in a sandbox after all.

"I was playing with them."

"Now you get to play with me!"

He expertly spun around and sat in the sand with Sasuke. "Don't you want to play with me?"

Sasuke gulped. Somehow Naruto pulled off this hot-but-completely-innocent look and it was driving him mad!

"More than you know." He muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing!" Oops. He hadn't meant to sound so suspicious. But hey, accidents happen.

"O-kay..." Naruto squinted at him, but soon a smirk was headlining his perfect face. "You look... embarrassed."

"Wha-hey! I am not!" But his blush darkened as he lied.

"Are too! You're mortified that I saw you being nice to little people when every time I brought it up last week you freaked."

Sasuke was about to retort but hesitated for a moment. Naruto's conclusion was way better than the truth anyways.

"Fine! You caught me! So what are you gonna do about it?"

"I think you know what I'm gonna do about it." Sasuke thought for all of 3 seconds and then attempted to run. But Naruto caught him and started tickling him senseless!

Normally he'd stop when Sasuke broke out laughing, but today he didn't cease the tickles until tears of joy ran down the other's face.

Once Sasuke wiped his eyes he glared up at his boyfriend and tsked. Hang on... Why was _h_e looking _up_?

"Hey!" He shouted. Naruto blinked.

"What?"

"Why are _you_ on top of _me_?"

"Oh! Be-" As if Sasuke would let him finish! Please! He flipped Naruto faster than Road Runner can outrun Coyote.

"There," he sighed. "The way it should be."

"Are you imply-" For the second time in 60 seconds Sasuke cut off Naruto's sentence. You can only guess (most likely very accurately) how he did that.

-

On the other side of the playground, through the kitchen window, Michiko and her older sister - Ichigo- were watching the display. Michiko's scream brought the other kids and some attendants over to the window and Shikamaru sighed.

"Who's going to introduce these kids to the 'Wonder of Wonders'?"

"Nose game!" Ino shouted. Everyone's finger shot to his or her respective noses. Unfortunately, because someone's ass was distracting him, Lee's finger was last.

"Oh come on! This sucks!" He shouted. Kiba and Neji laughed at the double meaning. Then everyone left Lee and the kids to the Birds and the bees. (Or the bees and the bees in this case).

* * *

Kiba's house was the closest to the Daycare, so it made sense that the boys stay there for the night. His parents were out all week for Spring Break anyway.

Besides, Iruka had someone he really wanted Kakashi to meet and having Lee there might spoil it.

"Iruka, would you please tell me why exactly you want me to meet Lee's Uncle."

Iruka grinned like a madman and knocked on the door where Kakashi's doom surely awaited him.

"No way. It would totally ruin this for me." Kakashi groaned and mumbled something akin to 'this is not good'.

"So this is all for your own sadistic pleasure?"

"Pretty much."

As soon as Iruka knocked the third time the door flung open to reveal - in a very dramatic hero pose worthy of it's own satellite dish channel - Gai Might!

"Iruka! How lovely to see you again. I have missed your beautiful smile and delicious smells more than my entire family put together!"

Iruka cleared his throat and glanced at Kakashi. Then he had to look away immediately or face even more pain than he was sure he'd get because of this. He didn't want to laugh at his boyfriend's face but...

Kakashi was clearly asking every god in the cosmos what he could have possibly done to have to bare a night with someone so... so... green!

"Er... I missed you too Gai! This is my boyfriend, Kakashi! Kakashi, this is Gai. He's an old friend."

But Kakashi didn't hear him. He was too busy trying to force his atoms apart so Gai couldn't see him. The glare the green-clad person was sending him was enough to scare even Sasuke... maybe. A little bit.

"Boyfriend?" He spat. Iruka nodded and put an arm around Kakashi for extra support.

"Yeeee-up." Iruka chirped. He squeezed Kakashi and this knocked the guy out of his stupor.

"Hey." He casually put his hand up and tilted his head closer to Iruka's. This seemed to piss Gai off even more. "What's up?"

Cue the bushy eyebrow twitch.

"May we come in?" Iruka asked. The "Ugly" Gai jumped back to reality and moved to the side.

"Of course! Sorry, where are my manners?" As they passed each other Kakashi and Gai narrowed their eyes and if it was possible you could have seen sparks flying. But not the good "Naruto/Sasuke" sparks or even the scary "Fangirl just caught sight of Naruto and Sasuke" sparks that you find in some places.

Oh no, these sparks flew off the charts of evilness!! It was so hilarious!!

"So, Gai!" Iruka clapped his hands and rocked back and forth on his heels. "Got any games?"

Kakashi's head swerved so fast he got whiplash. But even the pleading look he gave Iruka couldn't have stopped the teacher's fun. Besides...

Gai was already cackling evilly and pulling out board games, video games, lightsabers, and for some reason a gymnastics mat.

Kakashi gulped. _Shit._ He thought.

* * *

A ways away, at Kiba's house, Sasuke's "Kakashi's in Trouble" sense tingled, but he didn't really care.

They were playing _Twister_, and guess who was left.

That's right! Sasuke and Naruto were in a very, _very_ suggestive position. All the fangirls and guys in the house say hey!

"Wow...guys. That's Lee's third nosebleed. Maybe we should stop so we don't kill him or anything."

This was true. And Neji was doing a very good job of nursing his poor boyfriend back to health. Not to mention that he couldn't be pissed at Lee because he'd been fighting off his own nose bleed for quite some time now.

"No way! I'm going to beat Sasuke if it's the last thing I do!" Naruto shouted.

(I'm going to _try_ and explain their positions now... be warned.)

Alright... Naruto's right hand was on red and his right leg was on blue. His left leg was on the green spot right behind his right knee and his left hand was on the green next to that one.

Sasuke on the other hand, had his right leg on the green spot next to where Naruto's left one was. His right hand was on a yellow spot behind Naruto's butt and his left leg was on another yellow spot away from the mess. Finally his left hand was on Naruto's right hand on the red.

(You don't have to interpret that I just wanted to see if anyone could get it.)

Put simply, Sasuke was on top, Naruto was on bottom and they were very close to each other.

"Alright, stop the game! Lee is going to die of blood loss!" Neji almost shouted at them. But then he'd have to stop focusing on keeping his own blood in his body and that wouldn't be good.

"You really think you can beat me?" Sasuke asked, his face right in front of Naruto's.

"Yep." But obviously Naruto wasn't aware of the hand Sasuke had so conveniently placed. It was right behind the other's butt. So, obviously he took advantage of this.

"Sasuke cheated!" Kiba pointed and hopped up and down. "Naruto won!"

But neither boy on the floor was paying attention to him. Sasuke grinned sheepishly and Naruto was rubbing his newly pinched rear.

"You suck!" He said to Sasuke.

"Give me a time and place." The Uchiha winked and Naruto blushed before hitting him over the head.

"Perv! You're so much like Kakashi it's scary!" Sadly, this brought Sasuke out of his state of mind and back to reality.

_If I'm like Kakashi, then... No! No way..._

He stood up and pulled Naruto with him.

"Kiba, where is your shower?"

"Upstairs, third door on the left." Kiba answered. Saske nodded to him and kissed Naruto on the head before walking over to the stairs, ignoring all of the shouts at Naruto about joining him and keeping him company.

He needed to think. Again. This was not healthy for him; no one had ever caused him so much confusion.

-

Once Sasuke left, the other boys threw a movie into the DVD player and sat around watching Jim Carrey in all his glory. Shikamaru, though normally he would be laughing the hardest out of all his friends, was thinking.

"Naruto, was something wrong with Sasuke?" His blonde friend turned and looked at him.

"I don't think so, why?" Shikamaru shrugged.

"He looked... I don't know. He almost looked like he was sad about something." Neji nodded in agreement.

"So what do you want me to do about it?" Naruto asked, blinking with a naive look in his eyes. Kiba rolled his.

"Shikamaru's trying to tell you to go make him feel better!" He motioned up the stairs and wiggled his eyebrows. "In a certain way that only you can do."

This earned him a bonk on the head from Lee.

"He wasn't saying anything of the sort!" And quickly, before they started yet another fight for no reason, Naruto dashed up the stairs and into the bathroom where Sasuke was.

Then he paused. He was in the bathroom with Sasuke...his very naked boyfriend. Immediately he started to blush and thank Ichiraku that the water was on and the curtain shut. But spotting the clothes on the sink he had a brilliant idea. So he grinned evilly and rubbed his hands together.

Naruto snatched Sasuke's clothes off the sink and ran out of the room. This was going to be fun.

* * *

Back on the other side of town Kakashi and Gai were in a heated game of _Candyland_. Iruka had long ago given up tying to play with them and resigned as the scorekeeper a while ago. They were too fast and furious for him to keep up.

For some reason Gai was infuriated by the fact that Kakashi was... how did the man put it? Hip and cool? And Kakashi loved the fact that he could kick Gai's butt at almost every game they played.

Neither took into account that they are actually grown men playing games that the kids at the Daycare find uncool.

Currently the score was Kakashi 126, Gai 120. Sadly, they never tied and somehow they came up with 246 games in three hours. This was going to be a long painful night.

Soon Iruka fell asleep on the couch as they continued their many games and challenges. He doubted he'd go anywhere other than Gai's house and the Daycare this week.

Why did he have to introduce these two?

Oh yeah, Naruto bet him fifty bucks that Gai wouldn't scare Kakashi off. Damn bets, they ruin everything.

* * *

And we bounce back over to Kiba's house. This time we're upstairs with Sasuke. See, he was a little embarrassed and very angry. When he'd gotten out of the shower and reached for his clothes all he'd found was air.

"Naruto." He growled. This was probably payback for the butt-pinching thing. Or his boyfriend just wanted to see him naked which was definitely a possibility.

After all, Iruka wasn't nearly as innocent as he led on and Sasuke was sure that he taught Naruto his ways.

So, smirking oh so sexily, Sasuke walked down the stairs - with nothing but a towel and pride in his hotness, mind you - and into the living room where everyone was sitting on the couch or floor watching a movie. No one really paid any attention to him when he was in the doorway, but since he had to walk across the screen to get to Naruto, everyone saw him.

_Especially_ Naruto.

Needless to say this time not even Neji could keep the blood in his body and both he and Lee had to leave the room. Kiba ran out after them because he was afraid Sasuke and Naruto might turn him gay. Shikamaru left because he... well... he just left.

"You know, Naruto," he whispered, straddling the other's waist and leaned over so he could be right next to Naruto's ear. "If you wanted to see me without clothes, all you had to do was ask."

He licked the other's earlobe for good measure and stalked out of the room after grabbing his clothes from behind Naruto's head.

_He tasted better than ever._ Sasuke licked his lips and walked back up to the bathroom and closed the door.

He never really figured out what Naruto had originally planned to do with his clothes, but he decided that what he did was better than anything that could have happened really.

Well, at least better than most things. The only event that could make tonight any finer would be if-

_Knock knock knock.

* * *

_

How many of you were squealing? I was. And I actually (seriously this time) have the next chapter completely planned out. All I have to do is type it and post it.

But, you still have to review!!

Oh! And just telling you now, the next chapter might get a little intense Naruto/Sasuke wise and I'm also going to tell you now that I will not write a lemon. If someone else wanted to right one and post it for this story that's cool but clear it with me first, alright? Lata!!


	9. Love Is In The Air

Thanks you so much for the reviews!! We're passed the one hundred mark!! If I had some form of a sweet I'd give it to you but I don't so sorry! But please review again!! I love getting them.

**Chapter Eight: Love is in the Air**

_Knock, Knock, Knock._

_I wonder who that could be. _Sasuke rolled his eyes and decided that - just for the fuck of it - he would piss his boyfriend off.

"Who is it?" He asked in a singsong voice.

"You know damn well who it is, Sasuke!"

Said Uchiha flinched with silent laughter.

"No, sorry. Can't say I recognize you." On the other side of the door Naruto was surely fuming. Sasuke's sexiness had never failed him before and obviously it was working double-time today.

But his inner musings were stopped when Naruto opened the door, stepped in, and quietly shut it again. That was kind of weird and unexpected. Why was Naruto being so stealthy? Was he going to kill Sasuke?

"You shouldn't have done that." The blonde turned and smirked at Sasuke. Okay, definitely going to kill him. Why else would he be so _purposely_ h-o-t-t hott!!

"D-done what?" Sasuke stuttered, stepping back but not realizing the toilet was there and he fell down. Naruto's smirk widened and he glided over to the seat. If there had been anything to hold on to Sasuke would have been squeezing it for dear life.

"I think you know what.' Naruto whispered straddling the other. He brought one hand up to tangle Sasuke's hair and let the other rest of the pale back. Slowly, he brought their heads closer together and gently - teasingly - he touched their lips.

This brought Sasuke back to reality and he immediately took control. He kissed Naruto so fiercely it's a wonder the lights weren't flashing.

Little Lime

Surprisingly it was Naruto's tongue asking for entrance this time. Since that never happened before Sasuke let him but only for a bit. He fought Naruto's tongue back and his hands started to raise the other's shirt. Gladly Naruto let him take it off, one of his hands bumping the lever on the toilet making it flush.

Naruto grinned against Sasuke's lips, which he'd slammed right back onto once his shirt was off. Sasuke pulled away from the other though and started down the tan neck, right until he reached the collarbone where he bit down lightly causing Naruto to moan. Slowly, the Uchiha worked his way back up to Naruto's mouth and his hands came up from the waist to the blonde locks on top of Naruto's head.

He twisted and pulled until Naruto moaned again. And Naruto brought his hands down to Sasuke's waist, grabbing at the towel.

End Lime

Sadly this pulled Sasuke out of his Naruto- induced state of mind and he shot a hand down to catch Naruto's wrist, shocking the other out of the ecstasy of the moment as well.

They stared at each other. One with a look of fear and realization, the other hurt and rejected.

"Are you freaks done in there yet? I need to take a dump!" Kiba's shouting brought Naruto out of Sasuke's eyes and he made a mad dash out of the bathroom, completely forgetting his shirt and disregarding his friends calls.

"Naruto." Sasuke whispered, reaching a hand out towards the door weakly.

"You should probably go find him."

Sasuke's head shot towards Kiba, who was still standing in the doorway but not looking at the Uchiha. As if he was still afraid Sasuke might turn him gay...

"What?"

"I don't know what you did to him but Naruto does stupid stuff when he's alone. Get dressed and find him" And the dog boy shut the door behind him. Leaving Sasuke to get dressed and trail after Naruto.

Before h left, though, he grabbed two things: Naruto's shirt and a small wrapped box he'd hidden when he stepped in the shower.

-

Naruto didn't understand. People were always coming after him for sex and the one time he willingly gave himself up he was rejected!

Okay, so he didn't give Sasuke the most time in the world to explain. Maybe the dude didn't want to do it in the can! Naruto could understand that. At least Sasuke was nice enough to stop when it got far. He wasn't like the others, he was a good person.

He wasn't like...

Sophomore year, this was supposed to be the year when everyone decided where they stood with everyone else.

_Unfortunately for Naruto he stood nowhere with no one. That's what they told him at least. Cyrus had graduated the past year so Naruto thought maybe he could start over somehow. _

_And then Kabuto came._

_He was the newest senior this year and a very over protective boyfriend. Or, bet-winner rather..._

_Yep, you guessed it. Kabuto was the second low-life to bet money on getting Naruto into bed. And he got it._

_But not the way he was supposed to. Oh, no Kabuto abused Naruto - verbally, physically, mentally you name it. The worst part was eventually Naruto started to believe him. If Kabuto said no one else would ever want to date Naruto, he'd believe him. _

_Naruto thought he deserved every kick and punch and slap..._

_He found out too late that he was wrong..._

Naruto let out a sob as he climbed up the rope to his sacred place. That had been one long hospital trip.

-

Sasuke panted as he continued to run after Naruto. It had taken a while but he'd finally seen the flash of orange pants he'd needed and had been chasing the other ever since.

But as he was running he was berating himself. Why did he do that? Why did he stop Naruto? He had the bet in the bag! Naruto was going to give him a thousand dollars!

Be he stopped him. Something made him stop Naruto.

What was it?

Sasuke remembered the conversation he'd had with some of those jerks he'd made the bet with just recently. They filled him in on some very interesting information.

"Hey! Uchiha!" Sasuke turned from his locker and saw some of the jocks from a couple weeks ago running towards him.

_"What?" he spat. These people were just painful reminders of what he was doing to Naruto. _

_"How goes that bet?" The shortest boy and obvious leader of the pack slapped Sasuke's back. They were about the same height, but it was obvious that Sasuke could kick his ass._

_"Hn." He slammed his locker and slung his bag over his shoulder. "Better get your wallets ready."_

_The three jocks grinned and pulled Sasuke down the hall with them. _

_"We like you, Uchiha. That's why we're gonna fill you in on what we're doing here."_

_Sasuke raised an eyebrow._

_"Do tell." The dude laughed and straightened out his Letterman jacket._

_"See my old man and the freak's old man went to school together. They were rivals. But the last thing they ever did together was make a bet. The freak's dad bet mine that his first-born would be a virgin longer than me. We want to prove him wrong."_

_Sasuke's brow furrowed._

_"Naruto doesn't have a dad."_

_Before walking away the jocks laughed one more time._

_"Not anymore he doesn't! And that's the way it should be."_

It had pissed Sasuke off so bad he almost decked one of them. The next day they told him about what they would say to Naruto if Sasuke finished the bet. The things they said!

Sasuke shuddered.

Then another memory popped into his head.

Naruto took a giant whiff of the air around him and sighed.

_"Smells like Tuesday." He said. Kiba bonked him on the head and leaned back in the chair._

_"So, where's your _boyfriend?" _He teased. Naruto glared._

_"He's not my boyfriend!" Sasuke smirked across the room overhearing this._

_"Not yet." He mumbled. When the bell rang he stayed seated and waited for Naruto to pass. Then he discretely slapped the boys rear and left the room. He relished in the screams being sent his way._

_Now, Sasuke didn't see this, but obviously Naruto had found the note and met him by the bathroom on the sixth floor for lunch._

_They didn't talk at all, but Sasuke took Naruto's hand and led him down the familiar path to the chapel. Once there, they sat down in the fifth pew on the right, directly under the window._

_"Sasuke." Naruto stared, breaking the silence. "Did you wa-"_

_"Will you be my boyfriend?" Sasuke (shouted) at him. Later he'd blame it on the echoes in the church and not on the nerves that took over as soon as the bet left his mind._

_""Wh-" Naruto closed his mouth and swallowed. But nodded slowly and grinned._

_"Yeah?" Sasuke chose to ignore the eagerness in his voice and pass it off as really good acting._

_"Yeah." They smiled at each other and leaned in as one._

Sasuke groaned out loud. What was he doing? He'd loose the bet at this rate!

No. Right now he had to focus on finding Naruto.

He'd been running though the woods for a while and still following those orange pants, but he stopped and stood, panting when the pants climbed up a tree.

-

Naruto crawled through the door to get in the clubhouse. They had pillows and blankets there since everyone in a while someone would run away. He pulled out his favorite set - orange, believe it! - and curled up in the blanket lost in his memories.

Until something landed on his head... Naruto reached a hand up and picked a small box out of his hair. Sitting up, he examined it. A poorly done wrapping job and a note sticking off the top. Though it was hard to see in the dark and with messy Kanji Naruto made out the message.

I can wait forever.

Naruto bit his lip and untied the note. Then he took off the wrapping paper and opened the box...

He gasped.

-

Sasuke's ass hurt.

Sure he said he'd wait forever and he would! He just wished Naruto'd gone to a softer tree, that's all. And this was taking forever! All he'd planned on doing was giving Naruto the gift, maybe sharing a few sentimental words, then _finally _winning the bet!

But noooo, Naruto had to go and be all sentimental!! Couldn't he ogle the thing later an-

Once again his rampaging was cut off when a rope unraveled in front of him. Walking forward a bit, he tugged on the twine to be sure it was safe enough to climb. When he was he started up to the clubhouse.

And Naruto met him at the top.

For a minute neither spoke. Then Naruto grabbed Sasuke's hand and pulled him into the cabin part of the tree house.

Once they were situated, Naruto -very timidly- lifted the gift out of the box.

"Why would you give _this_," his eyes moved from the gift to Sasuke, "to _me_?"

Instead of immediately replying, Sasuke took the chain out of Naruto's hands and examined it. It was a silver chain and on it hung the only jewel for miles around that had the same ocean blue as in Naruto's eyes.

There wasn't anything really funny about the moment, but Sasuke grinned and started to laugh.

At first, when Sasuke took it out of his hands, Naruto doubted he'd ever see that necklace again. And when Sasuke started to laugh he wanted to fall out of the tree house. So, because he was feeling so depressed, he dropped his head down and tried not to cry.

Then the Uchiha surprised him by leaning over and latching the shimmering chain behind Naruto's neck.

Sasuke moved his arms down from the blondes neck to around his mid-back and he hugged him, kissing his neck and murmuring sweet nothings. Slowly, Naruto hugged back and they sat like that for a while.

Until, for the first time since this all started, Sasuke whispered to Naruto words that everyone dreams of.

"I'm giving this to you because you are my most precious person. And," He let out a dry chuckle. "Call me a sap if you want, but I'm falling for you."

Blue eyes widened momentarily, but something sunk in to Naruto's head and if there wasn't a roof above him he might have floated off.

"Wow." He gasped. He pulled back from Sasuke and looked him straight in the eyes. "Are you serious?"

Sasuke was about to say something but looked down at Naruto's chest. Oh right, he had a shirt in his back pocket.

Laughing a little he pulled it out and handed it to the blonde who gladly accepted it, blushing like a fat kid who just ran the mile.

"I'm serious." Sasuke did something that hardly anyone ever saw from him. He grinned showing off his pearly whites.

And then, they sat watching the stars together, wishing everyday could be like this. Wishing they wouldn't have to deal with the people in their lives. Wishing that right now they could just escape and not have to worry about anyone else.

Wishing for their dreams to come true.

-

Around the corner at Gai's house Iruka woke with a start.

"Is something wrong?" Kakashi asked, looking at him with concern and a suction dart on his forehead.

Normally Iruka would have answered him.

But the dude had a bright, neon yellow suction cup on his head.

Could you focus?

"What the _fuck _is on your head?" Kakashi wrinkled his forehead in confusion and there was a slight pop. Something fell off in his hand he looked at it. Then he started laughing.

"Oh, yeah. See, while you were sleeping-"

"Never mind." He put a hand up to silence the other.

"But-"

"Dude. Just don't tell me." Kakashi shrugged and then threw himself down on Iruka.

"What are you doing?!" the teacher screamed. Kakashi shushed him and pulled a suction dart gun out of his pocket. Carefully, he sat up and aimed it over the back of the couch.

Iruka, still being sat on, looked at the long forgotten scoreboard. Apparently they'd had to get seven more out to hold all the tallies. Gai and Kakashi were tied for 599 wins each.

"Are you kidding me?" Iruka mouthed harshly. "How long was I asleep?" he asked Kakashi.

"About two hours." Kakashi replied. He then moved lightning speed, aimed, shot, hit and won.

"Damn you, Kakashi!" Gai came out with five (or more, Iruka wasn't really counting) darts attached to him somehow. Iruka was still trying to figure out 1. How they played so many games in two hours and 2. What sort of games they played.

'That's 600 as we agreed on. Now if you don't mind, Iruka and I are going to catch a late dinner. Good night."

Gai still stood there, fuming. But h let them leave with a promise that he would beat his newly found "eternal rival" with "every ounce of youth in his body".

On the way to Mickey D's Kakashi remarked on how much fun that was and he was glad Iruka introduced them.

"You're crazy." Iruka replied. Just as they were about to open the door and enter the fast food place, Kakashi stopped him.

"Crazy in love." Iruka grinned and kissed Kakashi. In the background there was cheesy love music playing from the restaurant speakers. Can _you _feel the love tonight ladies ad gents?

-

To top the night off that kid with the pimples that came in before Sasuke all those chapters ago lost his virginity to the kid with the glasses that walked in before him!

And all the while the gerbil with foam coming out of his mouth was sitting in a mini lawn chair with popcorn, a flag, and a visor cheering him on psychotically.

Ah... that smell of new love.

* * *

Okay! Thank you for the reviews and I'm really sorry I've been taking a little longer with my updates. But see, there's thi guy that's been totally occupying my brain and I can't get over it and it's really hard to focus so I'm sorry that this was shorter than normal and if there are any typos I'M SORRY!! I just have no one to talk about this with so I'm always thinking about it!!

I'll be sure to at least update in a week. But the week after that is Spring Break for me so I'll be able to update at least twice then! Please review!!


	10. The Storm

Thank you all so much for the reviews!! They are so helpful and as promised here is this weeks update!!

**Chapter Nine: The Storm**

Who would have thought that after such a beautiful night such an incredible storm would follow.

Not only did Sasuke and Naruto have to keep the kids inside and occupied with a safe scissor-less, no-glue-involved, lets-try-not-to-run-into-walls activity, but for some reason Iruka decided to place them on opposite sides of the room! UGH!!

The others were doing fine for now. Sakura was on the phone with some guy again. Ino and Shikamaru were playing with the little kids and Ino was laughing her butt off every time that one little boy yanked on Shikamaru's hair.

Lee was being chased by around 15 of the little ones who were covered in paint and had torn most of their clothes off. They were screaming something about him using all the green...

Normally Neji would have made a move to help his boyfriend out, but at the moment he and Hinata were in a heated discussion over the proper way to change a diaper...

It seemed that the only person having any sort of success that day was Iruka. He had gotten all the babies he could to go to sleep and was now searching for the last bottle for the fattest baby.

Kakashi was teaching 9-year-olds all about Icha Icha Paradise. No one else really thought of this as success, but Kakashi did.

You'd think that with all the geniuses in the room there'd be a little more order. But nope! They were all totally oblivious to the chaos.

Well, the only people that could do anything about it were anyway.

Iruka kept getting distracted by a certain silver haired pervert. If he'd been paying closer attention he would have seen what said pervert was doing but why would he be paying attention to anything except the perfect ness that is Kakashi?

Kakashi could have done something to calm everyone else down too.

Or at least, if he was aware of his surroundings he could have.

But he was too busy having a huge war with himself.

Why hasn't he told Iruka about what was happening? About the bet? If he told Iruka then it would all be called off, right?

Words couldn't express how badly he wanted to tell Iruka what Sasuke was doing to Naruto. Especially because word on the street was this wasn't the first time anyone had been so cruel to the blonde.

But if he ratted Sasuke out then what would happen when they had to move again? He couldn't stand it if his own son wouldn't talk to him.

He guessed the best thing to do would be to just let Sasuke enjoy the time he was having with Naruto. That way, even if it was only going to be for a very short amount of time, Sasuke could be happy for once.

If anything the boy deserved that.

-

Naruto was totally ready.

When did he meet Sasuke? Almost a moth ago?

He'd Googled it; he'd read about it, he'd asked Iruka about it and apparently a month was the perfect amount of waiting time.

It was going to happen soon. Maybe when they all went to his and Iruka's special place this weekend.

But Naruto was sure about one thing. It had to be raining when it happened. Every bad thing that has every happened to Naruto - his parents dying, Kabuto, first day in an orphanage, etc.- had happened on a rainy day.

So, logically the only way to finally get over the rain would be to have a really good thing happen to him while it was raining.

Perfect logic.

-

Some of you m ight be wondering where Kiba has been the whole time.

Well, he was in the kitchen. On the phone.

Unfortunately this was the worst phone call he'd ever received.

-

"Okay kids, it's time to play a game." Cheers and whoops could be heard around the room. The naked chibis chasing Lee even stopped so they could join the circle.

Choosing to ignore their naked ness, Iruka began the game.

"The rules of the game are as follows. You pick one person- in or out of the circle- and think of something to say to them. It sounds stupid but you'd be surprised what can happen."

Immediately all the little girls' hands shot up. They were throwing glances at the different boys and it was obvious they were all excited to tell them how cute they thought they were.

"I wanna pick the first one Iruka!" Naruto jumped up and down earning a group eye roll from his fellow volunteers.

"Fine." Iruka waved his hands as if dismissing the whole thing. He walked away to help Kakashi with the snacks.

The other teens all joined Naruto at the game circle. This could be interesting.

-

When I say the "Other teens" I mean everyone except Kiba.

Dog-boy snuck out the back door and was on his way to meet Shino.

He wasn't one to pass up such valuable information after all.

-

Once everyone was finally seated around the "game circle", Naruto picked a little girl with orange hair to start.

"Um, I want to tell Grey something." She pointed to the only little girl who wasn't freaking out about talking to anyone. The little girl looked up from the snagged rug she was playing with and mentally prepared herself for torment.

No one really liked her or her name.

"What do you have to say about Grey, Amy?" Naruto asked. Behind him Sasuke was asking himself how Naruto learned all these names so quickly.

"Um-that's she's very pretty." Grey's eyes widened and Amy blushed before hiding her face in Sakura's side. (She was sitting next to her.)

Before Ino, Sakura, Naruto and Lee could "aww" though, some of the little boys and girls started to "Boo" and "Correct" Amy.

"She is not pretty!"

"She's got grey hair!"

"And who in the world has got purple eyes?"

"She's quiet and stupid!"

"Shut up! She is not!" Amy got up and pushed the last boy to speak. The kid fell on his butt and started crying. Amy humphed and walked over to a blushing Grey. Amy sat in the purple-eyed girls lap and crossed his arms.

The assistants looked at each other skeptically. What were they supposed to do?

Alas, Ichigo saved them when she raised her teeny hand in the air.

"I wanna say something to Naruto."

Said blonde grinned. The sign to go ahead and speak.

'You remind me of noodles."

"Ramen?"

"Nope. Just noodles." And she sat back down next to Michiko and they started to play, completely ignoring the blonde's sad face.

"Well Sasuke reminds me of chocolate." One little girl piped in sick of waiting to be called on.

"No, a library stupid!"

"Idiots, he reminds me of death."

"He reminds me of underwear!"

"Well, whatever he reminds us of, he's still hot!"

"Get him!"

Before he had time to react Sasuke was tackled by a hundred little fangirls. Well, it was more like 12 but it felt like at least a hundred!

No one bothered to help him either. Naruto was laughing his ass of at the scene. Sakura, Ino, and Hinata were looking at how adorable Amy and Grey were. Lee and Shikamaru left to chase after rogue chibis. And Neji sat on a bookshelf watching it all.

"Great game Iruka." He commented when the two older volunteers entered and witnessed the mass chaos for themselves.

"Maybe cake isn't the best snack food today." Iruka quietly started backing out.

"Definitely not." They stepped back into the kitchen to find carrots and sleeping pills.

-

"Shino! Get your sorry ass out here!" A brunette shouted to the trees. He was greeted with a boy who jumped down from one of the higher branches.

"No need to shout." Kiba glared at him fiercely. It was really enough to make anyone fear for their lives. And Shino would have were he human. But everyone was convinced he was an alien.

"Just tell me what you know about Sasuke." Had his collar not been covering up his face, Kiba would have seen Shino smirk.

"Patience." He tutted and shook a finger at Kiba. This just pissed Kiba off more and he growled, clenching his fists.

Shino had called him earlier in the afternoon telling him when and where to meet him. Apparently Shino's friend coming from one of the city schools had some serious dirt on Sasuke. It was something that could possibly harm Naruto and that was the only reason Kiba was here.

He hated Shino.

"Tell me already, will you!" Kiba shouted. There was a rustling in the trees and all of the sudden Kiba heard a whisper right behind his ear.

"He's a cheat." Kiba spun around at lightning speed and came face to face with lifeless eyes of the scariest blue you could imagine. It was like looking into ice.

"W-what?" The boy began to walk around Kiba in a slow, predatory circle.

"Uchiha. Is. A. Cheat." Kiba stepped back when the boy stopped so he could see him more clearly. He had fiery read hair and a tattoo on his forehead but no color to his skin and no eyebrows.

The eyeliner was scary too.

"You're crazy." Kiba scoffed.

"I'm a victim." The kid growled, showing his teeth at the end. As he said this his stare turned from emotionless to sanguinary. He truly had it in for Sasuke.

And this was the deciding factor for Kiba.

"Stop it. This is a sick joke. I've never seen Naruto happier."

"That's the way it always starts. But it will end in pain." A pink tongue darted out and licked dry lips. Kiba was practically shaking with fear of this boy.

"W-what will end?"

"It's all a set up. A bet. A scandal. It always has been." He got right into Kiba's face and the bloodlust in his eyes slipped away. "Tell your friend to watch his back."

And the mysterious boy vanished. Somewhere along the line Shino had vanished too.

Kiba was left standing alone with is best friend's fate in his hands.

But he did nothing about it.

-

Sasuke groaned and plopped his head down on Naruto's shoulder. The other boy giggled.

"Don't tell me you're already tired. It's only been two days!!" Naruto put an arm around Sasuke and the brunette snuggled closer to him. They were in the back seat of Kakashi's car driving to some restaurant or other for dinner with their guardians.

"I don't do well with kids, Naruto." He whined. Naruto rolled his eyes but kissed the top of Sasuke's head anyway.

"It'll be fine eventually. You could get used to it."

"Or not."

Iruka sighed and turned to the drivers seat to laugh at Kakashi who was practically sleeping while he was driving.

"You're such a wimp." He laughed.

"So much laughter Iruka! Too much!" He shook his head in a severely over-dramatic way. This only made Iruka laugh harder, slightly rousing Sasuke and Naruto from their sleep.

"Mmph." Sasuke mumbled something into Naruto's coat and snuggled closer to the blonde. As a reaction Naruto hugged him tighter and stretched just a little bit before settling all the way down onto the seat from his position against the door.

"They're wiped out." Iruka whispered to Kakashi. The older man nodded and pulled into the restaurant parking lot.

"How about I go in and grab our dinner and you stay here with them." Iruka nodded before kissing Kakashi on the cheek. The other hopped out of the car and walked in the door to pick up their dinners.

Once he came back he saw the cutest scene he could imagine. Iruka had apparently turned back to look at the boys and fell asleep in that position.

Kakashi shook his head and smiled at the other. It really was adorable.

Now, sure it was a long way out of their way but for some reason a day away from his son was too much for Iruka so they had to drive all the way down a highway and seven detour streets to get dinner and now Kakashi had to drive back down the highway and seven detour streets and an added three neighborhoods to get to his and Sasuke's house.

This drive all in all took a little over an hour.

But by the time he'd gotten back to his house, there was a massive storm going on.

The radio - before it died - said that it was the worst storm their town had gotten since the great flood of '71.

Which was apparently very bad.

So he pulled into his driveway and thought about how he could get everyone into the house. He's going to have to wake someone up. Why would he carry all of those people plus the (cold) dinner into the house in such a horrible downfall?

Clearly the only person to wake up would be Sasuke.

And he did.

Albeit very ungracefully.

"Ow! You bastard!" Sasuke shot up, rubbing his head.

"Shut up and grab your boyfriend. We need to get inside fast." Kakashi said already unbuckling Iruka and picking him up. He also managed to grab the bags with dinner in them.

"Whatever."

Sasuke wrapped his arms around Naruto's waist and shifted so he was carrying him bridal style. Once he was totally awake he sees how heavy the rain was falling and a flash of lightning lit up his house, which looked amazingly creepy compared to what it was like in the day.

"On three we'll run." Kakashi was ready at his door. He waited for Sasuke to have a hand on the doorknob and began to count. "One, two, three!" He shouted. They made a run for it and made it into the house being only slightly drenched.

"Shit!" Sasuke swore. Kakashi nodded and spat out some water.

"Good night." Kakashi left the bags with his shoes by the door and carried Iruka up to his room.

Sasuke took off Naruto's shoes and his own then headed upstairs.

But once he took off all the wet clothes (from both him and Naruto) and got under the covers with the blonde, that's when something shaky started to happen with Naruto.

Just as Sasuke was about to drift off again, Naruto started to thrash around and whimper slightly.

Thunder clashed and the blonde screamed.

But the most troublesome thing for Sasuke was that he was still sleeping.

Quickly and urgently he started to shake Naruto awake.

"Naruto. Naruto, wake up!"

Blue eyes shot open and a desperate hand shot out searching for something. Not knowing what else to do Sasuke brought his own pale hand to clash with the tan one of Naruto.

The blonde's eyes started searching around frantically and all the while Naruto was sobbing.

"Shh. What is it?" Sasuke stroked Naruto's hair back with his free hand. After a few minutes of silent nothings and more choked sobs Naruto calmed down enough to breath properly. Soon they were lulled into a sleep-like state and almost drifting off when Naruto broke the silence.

"Sasuke, don't leave me." The Uchiha's eyes flew open to the size of saucers. The whispered words caught him off guard.

"W-what?" He stuttered. Naruto's fist tightened and he buried his face under Sasuke's neck on the pillow.

"Please." He sounded desperate. "Don't leave me."

Sasuke licked his lips and tightened his hold on Naruto. He wasn't thinking about the bet. He wasn't thinking about what would happen when Naruto found out. He wasn't thinking about why he wanted to do this but...

He didn't want anything else except for Naruto to go to sleep and forget whatever horrible dream he'd had.

"Never."

Somehow what he'd said finally relaxed Naruto enough for the blonde to almost immediately fell asleep.

Unfortunately leaving Sasuke to his regrets and the sounds of the storm outside.

-

Naruto was sitting on a tire swing in his backyard. His dad was pushing him and his mom was pointing a camera at them.

_"Okay, Naruto hold still!" She giggled. The little boy settled down finally and made a peace sign while sticking out his tongue._

_His dad thought this was a good pose and decided to take it up as well. _

_Naruto's mom finally got the timer set up on the camera and ran over to stand with her two favorite boys, also deciding to make the silly face._

_The camera flashed and Naruto laughed. _

_Was this what heaven would be like? He wondered._

_-_

The next day, Naruto was sitting at a window watching the rainfall down onto the windowpane.

_"Whachya looking at, kiddo?" An older looking version of Naruto ruffled the hair of his son. _

_"The sky is crying daddy." The little boy pointed out to the rain._

_"Oh, that's because everything is sad when it rains." This only made the boy's frown deepen. "But," The boy looked up._

_"But, as soon as the rain stops everything is happy again. Even happier than before." Naruto looked up to see his mother looking more beautiful than he ever remembered her._

_"Why are you so pretty mommy?" The parents smiled at their son, knowing perfectly well what he meant._

_"Well, we are going to go out for a little while Naruto." The boy jumped up from his previous slump and bounced up and down._

_"Where are we going?!?!" he shouted. But his happiness died away again when his died sighed sadly._

_"Well, Naruto, your mother and I are going to be the only ones going out tonight." Naruto's eyes widened and he looked up with his lower lip sticking out at his dad._

_"Don't you love me anymore?" He asked. Immediately his mother was by his side and giving him a huge hug._

_"Of course we do sweetheart. But we haven't had time to ourselves for four years! Maybe it's time, don't you think?"_

_Naruto sniffled and the doorbell rang. His dad left to go answer it while his mom hugged him closer._

_"Do you promise to come back?" The woman grinned at her son._

_"Promise." She pulled back and stood up tall. Naruto's dad walked back into the living room with a girl following him. _

_"Okay Naruto. This is Kelly. She's going to be watching you for a while okay? You have to be a good boy for her now, okay?"_

_"I promise daddy!" _

_"Good! We'll see you in the morning then."_

_"Bye!"_

_Naruto ran to the window and watched as a car drove down the road and further into the storm._

_Two hours later there was an urgent report on the news about a car crash and the casualty count was two. A man and a woman. _

_A little boy's life was never the same again. _

_-_

Okay! Thank you for the reviews last time and I will definitely be updating at least twice in two weeks because that's when my Spring Break is! (Sorry if I said it was next week because I thought it was but it's in two weeks). Please review again!! SHANK YOU!!


	11. My Special Place

Thanks for the reviews!! My explanation to the lateness is after the chapter...

**Chapter Ten: My Special Place**

_It was three days after the storm first hit._

_Three days it has been raining._

_Three days since Sasuke told Naruto he'd never leave._

_Three days he has been slowly wearing himself down._

_Three days since Naruto decided his own fate._

_Three days he has been waiting._

_Three days since Kiba discovered the truth._

_Three days he has been passing it as a lie._

_Three days since Kakashi carried Iruka upstairs._

_Three days he has been living with the man._

_Three days since Iruka began remembering._

_Three days he has been crying._

_Three days more and it will all be over._

_Three days more it will have been a month._

-

Kakashi was walking threw his house in a panic. He'd woken up to find Iruka gone. Already he'd checked the bathrooms, the bedrooms (gotten hit by a shoe), the living room, the kitchen, the family room, and the basement. There was only one place left to look. The attic.

But how would Iruka have gotten up there without being heard? There was a giant folding ladder that came down from the ceiling in the hall and it always squeaked.

Kakashi thought more on this as he pulled the ladder down. He was just about to start climbing when a door down the hall opened and Naruto's head popped out. Sasuke's followed a minute later on top of the blonde's.

"What are you doing?" The Uchiha asked.

"Nothing, go away." Naruto did just that. Sasuke hesitantly retreated as well; though a second later his whole body reappeared. He walked over to his guardian who was half way up the wooden ladder.

It scared Sasuke- though only a little and he wouldn't admit it - that Kakashi didn't come up with a lame excuse this time. Normally he was impossible to talk to. But he hadn't bothered with any extra tricks today.

"So what is it?"

Kakashi stopped climbing and looked to Sasuke with something the raven had never seen in his eyes before.

The infamous Kakashi was tired.

Not a normal sleep deprived tired either. It almost looked like he was tired of life.

Guilt hit Sasuke when he realized that his only friend's misery was entirely his fault.

"I can't do it anymore." Were the last words whispered before Kakashi disappeared all the way up the ladder. He pulled it shut and Sasuke sighed.

He'd made one hell of a mess this time.

-

In the attic, Kakashi found what he was looking for. Iruka was sitting on a windowsill and watching the raindrops hitting the glass. If it weren't for the devastating look on his face Kakashi would have sworn he was an angel.

There were no lights on because the power had been out all week. This storm was really taking its toll. No one in the house had seen a clear picture of the outdoors in three days. Sasuke and Naruto hardly left the brunette's room.

Iruka and Kakashi had originally planned to spend the storm watching movies on a portable DVD. But they got bored after the first day.

Then they played board games. Which are, in fact, appropriately named.

After seven bowls of popcorn they decided to call it a night.

Well, technically it was around four in the afternoon. But because the sky was so dark it didn't make a difference if they slept from ten in the morning to three in the afternoon and were awake the rest of the time.

It was impossible to see anything other than when lightning flashed in the sky.

This was how Kakashi found that Iruka was crying.

Lightning flashed and a single tear rolled down his cheek.

Slowly and very cautiously Kakashi approached his partner. When he made it across the room and sat down next to Iruka, the other didn't seem to notice. Kakashi jumped, then, when Iruka suddenly buried his face in the hollow between his shoulder and neck.

Iruka on the other hand, knew Kakashi was there the whole time. He'd just had this habit since he was little of finding somewhere extremely high up to hide if he felt the need to get away from everything.

He told Kakashi this.

Iruka had been thinking about his parents again. He knows it's silly for a grown man to still wish for his mom at night. But he'd never really gotten to know her when he was growing up. She and his father died in a car crash when he was six.

He told Kakashi this.

That's why he adopted Naruto. Because they were the same and he would know how to take care of the boy.

He told Kakashi this.

Naruto's dad was an old buddy of Iruka's. That's how he knew the stories and where they put the boy up for adoption.

He told Kakashi this.

Eventually Iruka calmed down and right before drifting to sleep - the final thing he told Kakashi was about something his mother used to call him. She used to call him her little turtle because he had a shell. It was really hard for anyone to get to know him because of it.

"But I'm glad you did." He told him.

After a while of sitting on the windowsill with a sleeping Iruka in his arms, Kakashi decided that he needed to get everyone out of town. Somewhere far away so they could let everything go for a while. It was downright painful to see all the people he loved breaking down.

And he had a strong feeling he was next.

So Saturday morning found Kakashi, Iruka, Sasuke, and Naruto trying to get whatever they really needed into the car. Apparently, Iruka originally had planned to take them to his childhood home for the weekend, he'd just forgotten because of the storm. Mostly he wanted to go for Naruto but he still wanted Kakashi and Sasuke to see it too.

They drove until Naruto jumped in his seat and pointed to the sign that read "Now Leaving". Almost exactly three minutes later the rain let up.

"Looks like it's just around our place." Iruka commented. Naruto didn't seem to catch it, but Kakashi and Sasuke were both thinking the same thing. It was an awfully big coincidence.

-

Highways had never been an exciting place to be. Driving for hour after mind-numbing hour and never seeming to get anywhere. At least, this is what Naruto always thought about them.

But this particular car ride wasn't as bad. Mostly because he had Sasuke to bother.

"Naruto!"

"What?" He blinked innocently. Sasuke was fuming because he was trying to sleep, but a certain blonde menace, as he would put it, wasn't letting him.

"Stop it." Sasuke said his final words and settled back down into the seat to go to sleep. But as soon as he closed his eyes again... "That's it!"

Sasuke launched at Naruto and Naruto fought back. It was surprising that they didn't break anything seeing as they were sharing the back seat of Kakashi's car. Although it was a totally fly, top-of-the-line, anybody would be crazy not to want it 1967 Chevrolet Impala.

They wrestled for all of 20 seconds before Kakashi told them that if there was even a scratch on his baby they would polish the entire thing with top of the line toothbrushes and then have to brush their teeth with them.

Iruka laughed because Kakashi was completely serious. The two in the back immediately calmed down and settled back to get some shuteye. Naruto was leaning on Sasuke's side and the only sign that he wasn't sleeping yet was the devilish smirk on his face.

"Naruto! Quit poking me!"

-

They'd been driving for three hours now. Naruto wouldn't let them forget it.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"How about now?"

"No."

"Are we there _yet_?"

"No!"

"How much longer?"

"I don't know."

"Can we make a pit stop?"

"Naruto! Shut up!" Sasuke grabbed the other's head under his arm and dug his knuckles into the top of it.

It was near four in the morning now and Iruka had regretfully announced about ten minutes ago they would be at Konoha within half an hour. Naruto had been going back and forth with Kakashi now for five minutes asking him where they were and when they'd get there and about the bathroom that had been promised half a mile back.

Iruka had his Ipod blasting so he could drain it out, but Sasuke's had run out and he was forced to listen to his boyfriend's annoying questioning. Finally he'd had enough of it and tried poking the blonde until he shut up.

But that didn't do anything because Naruto turned it into a tickle fight, which is probably the only thing Sasuke couldn't beat him at.

So he'd had to find alternate means of shutting the boy up. Noogies seemed semi-affective but now they had to hear his shouts of mercy begging and this wasn't any better so Sasuke settled for just kissing the daylights out of him.

Surprisingly they hadn't thought of this before and the rest of the car ride flew by.

"Okay, we're here!" Iruka shouted. He launched himself out of the barely parked car and ran to greet the people waving at him.

Naruto, hearing his guardian's much welcomed shout, also launched out of the car and ran to greet his favorite person in this entire village.

"Jaraiya!!" He screamed. The blonde practically leapt from the car all twenty feet to a tall white-haired man. The man greeted Naruto with just as much - if not more - gusto.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite crazy person. How's it going?" And as if accepting an invitation to fill the man in on every aspect of his life in the past year Naruto started practically shouting and giving a play-by-play of everything.

Especially on his homeroom teacher since Jaraiya seemed most interested in her.

"She's doing great, ya old perv!" Then as if a light bulb went off in his head, Naruto snapped. "That reminds me! I have someone I want you to meet."

He waved Kakashi over from his previous position next to Iruka and properly introduced him to Jaraiya. No surprises, they immediately found loads of stuff to talk about and Kakashi had a new best friend.

Naruto decided to let them wonder off to talk about old pervert things and he ran over to Sasuke.

The other was standing awkwardly outside of the mass of people. Iruka and Naruto always got this kind of welcoming party when they visited Konoha so they were used to it. Everyone there loved them.

Sasuke noticed.

After all, it was hard not to with everyone screaming "Iruka, Naruto, we love you!"

"Hey Sasuke!" Naruto jumped and landed right in front of his boyfriend. Sasuke tried not to smile too much. After all, he'd just met these people. But Naruto's grin was infectious to the nth degree so he couldn't help the small smile on his face.

"Hey, dobe." Naruto pouted at the name and we all know this is the only reason Sasuke calls him that.

"There are some people I want you to meet."

So Sasuke was dragged through the mob of color and happiness he'd been trying so desperately to avoid. He met several people that actually were pretty cool in some ways. He was surprised that the girls here weren't nearly as bad as at home.

But his favorite person the whole time was an old man named Tazuna. Tazuna addressed Naruto as "you little brat" or some other name that always managed to get Naruto riled up and it made Sasuke come very close to laughing out loud.

The best part about Tazuna, thought Sasuke, was the stories he told. They hung around with the man and ate lunch all the while being told of ancient heroes and their daring deeds. He loved hearing about them and if he could have would have stayed with the man the whole time.

But don't tell Naruto that.

"Now if we can sneak away I'll show you my favorite place in the whole world!" Naruto whispered and grabbed Sasuke's hand. They waved bye to Tazuna and promised to come talk again soon.

Kakashi and Iruka went off with some of Iruka's old friends who Kakashi actually liked a lot. Especially Asuma, that guy was riotous! And his wife Kurenai was the perfect match for him, not taking any of his crap and always catching his pranks.

Sasuke hadn't noticed until Naruto took him there, but Konoha had a brilliant view of the ocean and the docks were so peaceful. It would be the perfect spot for a date.

"Naruto!" The boys stopped walking and turned. There was a little boy who couldn't be older than eight running full speed at Naruto. Sasuke's first instinct was to dodge him but Naruto opened his arms wide and caught the kid.

"Inari!" Naruto was quick to hug the boy tight. They clearly had a very special brother-brother kind of thing going on. It was adorable really.

But don't tell Naruto Sasuke thought that.

"Where have you been?" Before Naruto could respond he was hit on the head with something.

"Hey! Who threw that?" Sasuke's head spun around when he saw something move on one of the boats. He passed it off as a low flying bird and turned back to see Naruto rubbing the sore spot on his forehead.

Sasuke chuckled and kissed the spot where the unidentified flying object hit. Naruto's face immediately lit up and he grinned. He was just about to thank Sasuke proper and set Inari down when something else hit him on the head.

This time it was flying to fast for just any average Joe to have thrown it. It obviously had to be someone with skills. Inari starting laughing and pointing because he obviously knew what was going on. Sasuke frowned and looked at the boats again. There! The thing moved...

Another object flew and just before it hit Naruto's head Sasuke caught it. He examined it and found that it was a specifically polished and molded rock, clearly made for just what it was doing. Hurting Naruto's hard head.

"You're never going to find him!" Screamed Inari before he ran away laughing as maniacally as an eight year old could.

Which was surprisingly very scary.

"Now I get it!" Naruto once again grabbed Sasuke hand and ran for one of the boats. It was the same one Sasuke had seen the thing moving on. "Come out come out wherever you are!"

Sasuke almost made to quiet Naruto because he didn't know what was on that boat. But obviously Naruto did know and was totally calm about it.

"You're getting better and better Naruto." Sasuke was surprised to see and almost clone-like version of himself stand up and greet Naruto. "But not as good as your friend here. He caught one of my stones. That takes talent."

"Shut up Sai. This is Sasuke. He's my boyfriend!" The grin previously on Sai's face slipped and he glared at Sasuke.

Had it been anyone other than Sasuke, they would have cowered and ran. But this is Sasuke-frikin-Uchiha we're talking about. He doesn't run. He glares back.

Not noticing the tension between the two, Naruto invited them both to come to the ice cream parlor with him. So they did. Sasuke wrapping one arm around Naruto very over-protectively.

Sai stood on the other side of the blonde, way to close for Sasuke's liking. But if Naruto was to be happy, that is where he had to stand.

Naruto didn't even notice that the boys didn't say a single word directly to the other one the whole time. Tian - the girl behind the counter - noticed it. She even made a comment on it.

Tian never spoke again.

Poor, poor Tian.

-

"So, Iruka, have you been to see the old man yet?" Asuma asked. Iruka shook his head and smiled.

"I was going to wait for tonight at the show and see him with Naruto. Why?" Asuma lit another cigarette and shrugged before sticking it in his mouth.

Kurenai was the one to answer him.

"Well, Sarutobi isn't doing too well nowadays. He's been in and out of the hospital lately and-" Iruka waved a hand in her face telling her to stop and smirked.

"Come on, that man's been in and out of the hospital his entire life! Nothing is going to bring him down." Kurenai laughed and nodded her agreement. Kakashi decided that he'd ask Iruka later since no one seemed interested in filling him in anyway.

"So, Kakashi," Asuma started the conversation again. "You're dating Iruka?"

Kakashi nodded the affirmative and Iruka blushed, knowing exactly where this was going since it was Asuma and not Kurenai asking the question.

"Is he any good?" Kurenai hit her husband upside the head and shook her own, putting a hand up to her eyes. Iruka let his forehead connect rather painfully with the table they were sitting at. Kakashi just smirked.

"That's for me to know and you to never find out." Iruka groaned as Asuma laughed. Kurenai's mouth hung open a little but she didn't say anything. Asuma said that it was definitely okay in his book for Iruka to go out with Kakashi.

"I'm not a kid anymore you know. I can pick who I want to date." Asuma smirked.

"But you know that I'm always right when I tell you who is scum." Kakashi almost frowned at this, but kept up his mask and got into a heated discussion with Asuma about who would win a fight between the Lucky Charms Leprechaun and Fred Flintstone.

Soon Iruka and Kurenai were also in on the conversation insisting that Betty Boop would kick both of their asses.

Ah the beauties of immaturity.

-

The rest of Naruto and Sasuke's afternoon was spent with Sai much to the Uchiha's displeasure. It wasn't that he didn't want Naruto to be able to spend time with his friends. It was obvious the blonde was loads happier here than he was at their own town.

But why did Sai have to be his friend, Grrrdammit?

Sure the guy was nice to Naruto but Sasuke could tell that underneath that stupid fake smile was an evil, evil man waiting to snatch Naruto from Sasuke's grip.

And in three days time he might just get his wish.

Sasuke had been thinking a lot today, especially when Naruto would stop and talk to someone he hadn't seen in a while. He'd been thinking about the bet and how exactly he could get those stupid jocks to shut up about it.

He was going to drop the bet.

It was a hard decision at first but Sai helped, in a way. He proved to Sasuke that seeing Naruto with anyone else would drive him mad! So he made his choice and was just going to give them the thousand dollars.

But he was sure that somehow Naruto would find out about it and hate him.

So he was definitely going to have to pay interest. Hopefully Kakashi would understand.

But there wasn't a doubt in his mind that as soon as they got home he was going to talk to those stupid jocks and finally stop the bet.

"Come on Sasuke!" Naruto pulled him along the street, laughing at the surprised look on his boyfriend's face. "You were spacing out again. The show's about to start!"

Sasuke blinked. Naruto turned and walked backwards. Subconsciously, Sasuke realized Sai was no where near and he shouted with joy.

"You know, fireworks?"

Sasuke blinked again.

"It's because me and Iruka have connections."

Naruto's bad voice impersonation of some Italian gangster didn't faze him and Sasuke blinked.

Naruto sighed.

"Come on." He turned to walk forwards again but kept pulling Sasuke's hand. The Uchiha looked ahead to see where Naruto was headed and saw Kakashi hanging out with the people from before and a few others.

Deciding that this was the perfect time to sneak away. Kakashi saw them coming and waved to Sasuke who waved back but motioned that he wanted some alone time with Naruto. Kakashi nodded and turned back to his new friends.

Sasuke then tightened his grip on Naruto's hand and ran. He already saw the perfect clearing. No one else was there so he hurried up before someone beat them to it.

Ignoring Naruto's questions he pulled the blonde all the way to the top of the hill. It was a brilliant view.

From their hilltop they could see everything. There were the people setting up the giant fireworks display and the strings of lights over every house down there. The place was illuminated and magical. They could hear someone's radio blasting and the people's laughter.

But the best view of all, thought Sasuke, was the look in Naruto's eyes. He was truly happy. The blue irises gleamed with joy and the only light around that could rival with them was the necklace he was wearing.

It was the one Sasuke had gotten him.

"This is great, Sasuke!" Naruto turned excitedly and glomped his boyfriend. This was truly the best view in the village and Naruto was glad to enjoy it with Sasuke.

"I'm glad you think so." Sasuke smiled and hugged Naruto back. He realized how carefree he'd gotten around the blonde and liked it a lot.

He was glad that he had someone to be himself around other than Kakashi. He needed more people like this.

Seeing as they were being so careless and just enjoying the moment, it surprised Sasuke when Naruto became so serious. He locked eyes with the Uchiha and the fierceness in his stare was most intoxicating. Almost arousing.

In fact it was arousing.

And very, _very _sexy to boot.

Their lips crashed in ecstasy and the night that followed was the most passion filled night either had ever had. One touch from the other sent them spiraling away from the world. If anyone had been walking to close they would have heard moans of the deepest pleasure. That night Sasuke took something very valuable from Naruto.

I'm sure you can guess what it was, but I'll give you a hint. They were sore in the morning.

-

Iruka was pushing through the crowds looking for his son. It wasn't like Naruto to miss out on seeing Sarutobi. He bumped into Kakashi during his search and asked the silver-haired man if he'd seen Naruto. Kakashi said yes he had seen Naruto and that he doubted Iruka would want to find him right now.

Iruka understood and decided to stay in one place and watch the fireworks with his boyfriend. Afterall, it wasn't like anything bad could happen to Naruto in Konoha anyway.

-

-

Thank you so much for the reviews! I'm sorry this was so late! I was working on it on Friday and I thought that I'd posted it because normally that's what I'll do. I write out the chapter in my notebook all week then type what I've written and post it but I forgot that I didn't finish this chapter in my notebook so I had to finish writing it on the computer and I remembered this morning and freaked out and so I've been writing all day to make up for it and it's longer than normal so be happy please!!

Please review! Thanks!!

P.S.- I'll get another update out this week! Yay!


	12. Never Kiss and Tell

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto. Or anyone in Naruto. Ha. Double Meaning

**Warnings: **Yaoi, OOC, and in this chapter at least, language.

**A/N: **I definitely am sooooo sorry that this took so long. I didn't intend it too at all. I actually had half of it written in my notebook. But then... well... let's just say something _huge _happened to me. But I should be updating a little more regularly at least. Can't guarantee anything though.

**Chapter Twelve: Never Kiss and Tell**

Naruto limped his way to the room he should have slept in last night. Damn his ass hurt! Where had Sasuke learned that? It wasn't like Naruto'd never done it before, but this was his first time willingly going through with it so he was still in shock.

He didn't remember it hurting this much last night. Maybe he should have looked closer at what Sasuke was...er... equipped with before he let him in.

But oh! What a night it had been! He didn't imagine the neighbors were incredibly thrilled with it but he didn't exactly care.

He shivered when he remembered this one thing Sasuke did with his tongue-

"Naruto." The boy flinched at angry-parent-that-just-stayed-up-all-night voice coming from Iruka. He hadn't really spoken with his dad since they arrived in Konoha so the man wasn't completely aware of where he'd been all night. This was made evident by the murderous yet somehow relieved slash incredibly happy look on Iruka's face.

Naruto made a mental note to ask how this was pulled off.

Maybe he could use it against Sasuke sometime.

"Hey, Iruka!" Naruto waved nervously and gulped, wishing he could have to deal with Kakashi instead.

He was sure Sasuke wouldn't get yelled at. Kakashi was such a perv, maybe just a pat on the back or something.

--

And Naruto was right.

Across the hall waiting the in room originally assigned to Sasuke was Kakashi.

And he wasn't going to yell at Sasuke at all.

In fact, he'd hardly raise his voice.

"Well?" Sasuke looked up somewhat startled at his father, sitting so painfully formal on a chair as if he were about to meet an unpleasant business associate. "Did you do it?"

The Uchiha cringed at the anger evident yet subdued in Kakashi's voice. It was obvious the man was trying very desperately not to strangle his son.

Sasuke had to admit he'd seen this coming. But he'd thought maybe he'd have some time to prepare first. And shower.

"Yes." He answered begrudgingly. If he was going to have this discussion, he might as well get it over with. "But-"

"Why?" Sasuke's eyes widened at the question.

"Why what?" He asked. Kakashi sighed, sounding as though he'd just given up though obviously still angry.

"Did you do it for the bet?" he walked up to his son and placed his hands on the boy's shoulders. "Or do you love him?"

Kakashi kissed his son's forehead and then walked out the door, leaving Sasuke to think it over.

--

Kakashi continued out into the house, through the kitchen, and out onto the back patio where Asuma sat. He and his wife were kind enough to let the four stay with them for the weekend.

Kakashi didn't register the fact that someone was watching him and stormed into the back yard. He started paving and wringing his hands. Clenching and unclenching them until he thought he'd go crazy.

He loved Iruka, he knew he did. So why didn't he tell him about the bet already? If he finds out through a chain of some sort that Kakashi knew then he'd dump him for sure.

But if Kakashi told him then Sasuke would hate him forever and he'd never get another chance with Naruto.

So he did what any father would do.

He sacrificed himself for his son.

If he held off and didn't tell Iruka, then Sasuke would get a chance to dump the bet and patch his life up. Naruto is a very forgiving person and it might take a while, but he was bound to trust Sasuke again.

Kakashi hoped at least.

He knew that there was only one thing Iruka never forgave anyone for: hurting Naruto. Unfortunately that's exactly what was going to happen and it would be Kakashi's fault.

"Something on your mind?" Kakashi jumped near a mile high at the sound of Asuma's voice. He took a moment to catch his breath then waved it off.

"Nothing you need to worry about."

Asuma smiled an I'm-smarter-than-I-look smile and put out his cig. He motioned with his hand that Kakashi should follow, which he did albeit reluctantly. He really just wanted to beat something up so being around people wasn't a smart idea at the moment.

He followed Asuma through Konoha, taking in none of the sites as his mind was still beating itself up. He was trying to come up with a reasonable explanation for why this was happening to him and so far he blamed that damn pink-flowery whistle. He knew he shouldn't have but it was just begging to be flushed.

"Here we are." Kakashi walked straight into Asuma's back and jumped off to the side.

Refusing to admit he was embarrassed, Kakashi took in the sight of what he assumed to be their destination. Though he couldn't figure out what it was.

The building looked worn down with a logo on the window painted with two swords crossing each other and Asuma's family name across the top.

"What's this?" he asked. Asuma laughed and led him inside.

"It's my very own training facility. You look like you need a fight and I'd say you could hold your own pretty well. So you'll be up against one of my best students."

Kakashi scoffed but delighted in the thought of a challenge.

"Who's that?" Asuma slid open a door and waved an arm inside. He smirked evilly before he closed and locked the door.

"Orochimaru." He laughed through the paper.

--

Stupid...

_Thud_

Idiotic...

_Thud_

Fucked up...

_Thud_

Never should have...

_Thud_

Gone through with it...

_Thud_

That fucking bet!

_Crack _

Sasuke watched with no satisfaction whatsoever as the tree he'd been punching fell in half. It wasn't supposed to be this way. He wasn't supposed to feel so strongly for that dobe!

With a cry of frustration Sasuke fell to the ground and started tearing the grass and soil up. When Kakashi left he'd been alone for not even a minute and Naruto came limping in asking how much trouble he got in.

Normally, Sasuke would have relished in the fact that Naruto was limping on his account. He would have teased the blonde about how disheveled and dirty he was.

But "normally" didn't apply to his life anymore. Sasuke had no idea what "normally" was.

So he ran. Leaving Naruto standing in the doorway of his bedroom calling his name.

Sasuke ran as far as he possibly could, landing at a park close by the boats where he'd met that kid yesterday.

And he met the tree.

And he killed the tree.

And he fell to the ground.

And he ripped the ground to shreds.

Because no matter what he did...

He only had two days to be with Naruto.

And they'd probably be the worst days of his entire life.

Which really is saying something.

"Are you always so rude to nature?"

Sasuke's head snapped up at the sound of Sai's voice.

As if he wasn't pissed enough. Now this asshole had to pop up.

"Fuck off."

Sai laughed arrogantly and jumped from his perch on a tree branch not to far away. With all the grace of an elephant he marched up to the now standing Sasuke and smirked.

"Afraid I can't. See," he patronizingly placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. The other jerked away violently and scowled. Sai continued. "You have something I've wanted for a very long time. And I intend to get it."

Sasuke snorted and turned to walk away. He didn't have time for this.

"Aren't you even wondering what it is?"

Flicking him off over his shoulder, Sasuke ignored Sai and continued on his way.

"It's Naruto."

That stopped him.

Sasuke felt something in him he'd never felt before. Suck a boiling hatred that bravely rivaled what he felt for anyone else who'd wronged him over the years. His blood ran cold, his heart turned to ice and all he saw was death to all that approached.

"Go near him," Sasuke turned to look over his shoulder at Sai with pure loathing. "And you die."

Were Sai anyone else he would have freaked at the look on Sasuke's face. No one had ever sounded so maniacally when addressing him before.

Alas, this was Sai. And he was in love with Naruto. And as we all know...

People do crazy things when they're in love.

"Touched a nerve, have I?" Sasuke growled, earning a tut from Sai. "For shame. We are both men so don't growl like a beast."

"He's mine." And with that final warning Sasuke stormed off to kill some more trees.

Behind him Sai continued laughing.

--

"Sasuke!" A frantic Naruto ran down one oft he many alleyways of Konoha still searching for his boyfriend.

It had been nearly two hours since Sasuke ran out on him and he wanted to know what he'd done that was so wrong. He felt so horrible thinking Sasuke was mad at him for something and he didn't know what.

And if he didn't know what the problem was then he couldn't fix it which created even more of a problem.

"Sasuke! Where are you?" Naruto continued running, wondering where the hell Sasuke was, when he passed by Asuma's dojo.

He could have sworn he heard Iruka cheering someone on. But it was probably just his imagination. Iruka always protested fighting.

So the blonde continued with his search. He checked all the local grocery stores, the movies, the shops all up and down the main streets, and he looked over by the boats that he'd taking Sasuke to meet Sai at yesterday.

The only place he hadn't been was the place where Kakashi parked his car.

Then he realized how stupid he'd been.

This was Sasuke he was looking for. King of Darkness. So obviously he'd go to the darkest possible place in such a bright town, which was the only thing that they brought with them.

Just as he reached the parking lot Kakashi's car was in, someone jumped out and screamed at him.

"AAAgh!" Naruto shrieked. It was a very girly scream too, even he'd have to admit.

His attacker laughed at his misfortune and he immediately knew who it was.

"Sai you ass! Don't do that!" Sai stood up straight and grinned at Naruto apologetically.

"Sorry. I couldn't resist. What are you doing out here?" He asked, sounding suddenly serious.

Naruto quickly explained what had happened with Sasuke and that he was looking for him. Then he practically started crying because he was so upset.

Sasuke wasn't angry with him because he gave in so easily last night, was he? This was something he'd really been thinking about all day. He hadn't exactly put up a huge fight. He'd been really excited to do it too. Maybe Sasuke wasn't. Maybe he thought he was just doing some kind of boyfriendly duty.

Naruto explained this to Sai with just as many words and was engulfed in a hug from the taller boy. Not that he didn't welcome the comfort, but Sai wasn't exactly the affection giving type... so why was he hugging him?

"He doesn't deserve you." Woah what was that? Naruto pulled back at Sai's whisper.

Was he talking about Sasuke?

"What?" Naruto asked, concern evident in his voice. Sai pulled back as well and looked Naruto directly in the eyes.

"I said he doesn't deserve you." Naruto's eyes widened as the other looked at him predatorily. Almost as though he viewed Naruto as some sort of prize. Something he had to fight for.

"That's not true." Naruto cursed himself for sounding so weak at the moment. Sai chuckled a single, devastatingly empty laugh that made Naruto shiver. He took a step back where Sai took a step forward and soon found himself pinned to the wall of the building that owned the parking lot.

"It's very true. Why not be with someone who knows how to take proper care of you? You are special Naruto. You should be treated like it." Naruto almost whimpered when Sai trapped his hands above his head. The other tilted his head and started to kiss up and down Naruto's neck.

However, even when Sai found his sensitive spot, Naruto didn't enjoy it. He instead tried to push at Sai and get away from him.

"Sasuke is all I need. Leave me alone!" Before he could scream anymore, Sai placed his mouth on Naruto's.

The blonde had never been more disgusted in his life. He wanted nothing more than to run away. Sai's full bodyweight was pushing him to the wall preventing that. This also meant he could feel the other's hard on perfectly through both their pants.

While his eyes had previously been squeezed shut trying to block out everything that was happening, they shot open when he felt a hand leave his wrists. He could tell by the brush of Sai's shirt that it was going down.

Fearing the worst he snapped his head forward, head butting Sai who's head flew back at the impact but he didn't loosen his grip. Instead he glared at Naruto.

"What was that for?" He asked, eyes heavy with lust and anger.

"Get off!" Naruto screamed. Before Sai could reply he was rammed into and thrown onto the ground by someone with such a force that Naruto swore he could hear a bone or two breaking.

Naruto looked up to see Sasuke breathing heavily and glaring so fiercely at Sai that the blonde was scared himself. He was about to get off the wall and go up to Sasuke when the other spoke, startling him.

"I warned you." He growled. His voice seemed to plaster Naruto to the wall. "I told you to leave him alone."

Sai looked up from the ground, while moaning in pain. His hands were wrapped around his chest, which led Naruto to believe that the bones he heard cracking were ribs. Sasuke was still standing over Sai with death promised with his eyes.

The raven knelt down and pressed his two fingers into Sai's cheek. "Leave. Him. Alone." He growled, seeing red.

He didn't get to actually beat up the bastard though, because just as he pulled back his fist to swing he felt an arm holding him back.

The blue eyes looking at him with such innocence and fear jolted Sasuke out of the stupor he'd been in before and he immediately wrapped his arms around Naruto protectively. Then he took them both home, not speaking a word but comforting Naruto with his presence.

Guilt swept over Sasuke as he thought of Sai. Not the fact that he'd nearly beaten the other boy up...

But that he could have very well just done the same thing Sai was going to do to Naruto last night.

--

"Kick his ass, Kakashi!"

Kakashi jumped back, avoiding a terrifyingly powerful kick being sent his way. This Orochimaru character presented the biggest challenge Kakashi had faced in a long time. And he was enjoying it.

It wasn't that he was a violent person, quite the contrary. He only believed in violence when it was completely necessary.

But that didn't mean he had to be a wimp.

Kakashi took pride in the fact that he was one hell of a fighter. Not very many people had ever beaten him when it came to sparring. And he didn't intend to loose to this guy either.

Especially not after he saw him eyeing Iruka up when the brunette came in to cheer him on.

Just thinking about that lustful stare sent another wave of anger rushing through Kakashi. He waited for Orochimaru to get close enough and threw all of his weight into a single blow effectively knocking the man out cold.

"Yeah!" Iruka jumped, thrusting a fist into the air. When Kakashi turned around he saw a brilliantly gleaming Iruka waiting for him with a glass of water.

He gladly accepted the H2O and gulped it down a little exaggeratedly. After making sure that Orochimaru was taken care of (as in taken to the infirmary) the two made their way out of the dojo and to anywhere else they felt like going.

They walked for what seemed like hours, trying to find a place that they could settle down and just talk for a while. Eventually they settled at a small open grass area. At the far end of this space was a large boulder with a few smaller boulders surrounding it.

So Kakashi settled on top of the rock and opened his legs wider so Iruka could fit imbetween them, which the other man did. He leaned back comfortably against his lover's chest and sighed. This was perfection in his eyes.

However, all good things must come to an end and Iruka sat up so he could turn and stare at Kakashi. He sat cross-legged and stared with the stare that all students are afraid of. With this stare he can get information from anyone.

"So are you going to tell me why you were so upset?" The brunette raised an eyebrow and tilted his head a little to the side.

If Kakashi weren't so practiced in showing absolutely no emotion he would have gulped. Iruka was asking him to spill his guts about the one matter that had been plaguing his mind for the past month.

He was asking him to explain the bet.

Oh boy.

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**A/N: **Props to No No 22 for inspiration on this chapter. And thanks to everyone else that reviewed. I really take them all to heart and they help me when I think my writing sucks (which is often and partially why this particular update took so long). Review and I hope that I can finish this story up soon.

There should be two or three chapters left depending on this one part I'm debating on putting in or not... Please Review


	13. Now We've Got a Big Mess on Our Hands

**Disclaimer: **I don't own it.

**Warnings: **Yaoi, OOC, some Language

**A/N: **It took a while for this I know. And the next one might possibly take just as long, unfortunately. I have two reasons. I could use the totally cliché excuse and tell you about my finals in a week. Or I could tell you the truth and say that I don't want to see this fic end. Either way, you're not getting a chapter for at least another week. SORRY.

**Chapter Twelve: Now We've Got a Big Big Mess On Our Hands**

_I've got that lefty curse  
Where everything I do is flipped  
And awkwardly reversed  
You're seldom known and barely missed  
__I always put myself  
In destructive situations  
I need oxygen  
To be exposed where no one goes, where no one's been  
When it all comes crashing…_

_Now we've got a big, big  
Mess on our hands tonight._

_-The Academy Is..._

Kakashi licked his dry lips and took a few deep breaths. This was not good.

Iruka was asking him to explain the bet.

The bet.

The very bet that his only son is staking his heart more so than his money on.

And Iruka, the one person Kakashi knows he can give his own heart to, was asking him to explain said bet.

When the main cause and unwillingly involved person in the bet was Iruka's only son, Naruto.

Whom Sasuke (he's Kakashi's son, remember) loves dearly.

Now Kakashi had to decide whether or not he valued his own love over his son's love.

Sasuke had been through a lot in his life. He didn't really deserve to have Naruto torn away from him as well.

But Kakashi had also been through a lot. So did he deserve to have Iruka torn from him?

Who would hold it together better when their life went to hell?

Kakashi almost wanted to cry. He knew the answer to that better than anyone.

He sighed and leaned in to put his forehead on Iruka's.

"It wasn't anything, really. It was just something Sasuke did." Kakashi pushed as much sincerity as he could into his voice. It seemed to satisfy Iruka, because the man grinned and nodded his head vehemently.

"That happens with Naruto all the time. Sometimes I swear, if he wasn't so cute..." Iruka trailed off and then laughed at his own joke. Kakashi forced a laugh as well.

He'd gotten away with that lie.

This just added to his already guilty conscience. He'd lied to Iruka again.

When his lover found out about all of his lies, he was surely going to question Kakashi's love for him. Kakashi could see it now.

"Was it all a lie Kakashi?" The grey haired man watched as the love of his life walked away with tears running down his face.

He couldn't bear to hurt Iruka anymore that he had.

Crap. He'd have to tell him.

Iruka saw the brief moment of terror cross Kakashi's face and he was about to question in when he heard a rather loud and very obnoxious shout tear across the field.

Naruto was here.

"Iruka, Iruka!" the blonde ran up to the pair sitting on the rock and slammed into a halt. Sasuke came a few steps behind.

Neither Iruka nor Naruto saw that he avoided all eye contact with Kakashi and vice versa.

"What is it?" Iruka asked, very adapt to Naruto's random outbursts by now.

"Some kids are throwing a party and me and Sasuke want to go! Please, please, please, please?!?!"

It was obvious that Naruto thought it completely necessary to make every inch of his excitement noticeable to the world.

Sasuke thought it cute.

Kakashi was battling his own mind and didn't notice.

And Iruka could hardly say no to an excited Naruto.

"Well, it's alright with me. Kakashi?"

Kakashi waved his hand, signaling that he realized he was being spoken too but didn't quite register what was being said. Yet he decided to agree anyway, because Iruka had.

The teacher didn't fail to notice his boyfriend's distracted-ness but didn't grab the chance to question it because at that moment Naruto grabbed his hand and pulled him away, asking about an outfit he'd seen in a shop window for the party.

This left Sasuke to be alone with Kakashi. Taking in his father's distressed state, Sasuke figured it was more like being alone with his own thoughts than the man who raised him.

So he reminisced about the day so far, and didn't really like what he remembered.

After Sai had tried to seduce Naruto and Sasuke saved him, the pair went to the local ice cream parlor to chat.

Then some girls who thought that they were totally adorable came up to invite the boys to their party later that night. Naruto immediately agreed, not one to pass up an opportunity to have fun. Not to mention he knew the people.

The girls stayed and talked to them for a while, thinking they had a chance.

Then they realized that Naruto was dating Sasuke and they stayed a little longer because they thought that gay guys were totally kawaii.

Then Sasuke threatened them with death.

Once they left, Sasuke told Naruto that he was sorry for last night. That he didn't want to pressure Naruto into a deeper relationship.

Naruto refused to accept the apology because he said there was no need. He said that he loved Sasuke.

That he loved him.

And Sasuke told him back. That he loved him too.

It wasn't a lie.

But nothing very good was going to come of it.

Other than that he knew for a fact Naruto loved him back. That he wasn't the only one feeling anything in the relationship. Maybe that meant he'd have somewhat of a chance to save them.

"Kakashi." He caught his father's attention and looked down at the ground, trying to fight back all of the emotions pummeling him at once. "I love him."

Kakashi nodded and hopped off the boulder. He put one arm around his son and hugged him.

"I know."

-

Naruto was unusually chipper.

Sure he was hyper.

And sometimes he seemed to defy gravity with his bouncing-off-the-walls abilities.

But it was at an all-time max today.

In all honesty it was terrifying Iruka. He was about to ask Naruto for a urine sample he could get tested for crack when the blonde stopped and pointed to the window he'd seen the outfit in. And Iruka thought it was perfect.

He fully supported Naruto getting a little action once in a while.

So this outfit was a brilliant scheme thought out by his very own son.

He sniffed.

"I'm so proud." Naruto grinned and pulled Iruka into the store.

Sasuke was in for it tonight.

-

Back home, Kiba was freaking out.

He'd known for a few days now that the crazy kid told him the truth about Sasuke.

Those jocks even confronted him on it. They asked him to tell the blonde what was up.

But he couldn't do it.

Then he tried to go to their houses and talk to Naruto or Sasuke personally but neither one of them were home.

When he asked around he'd found out that Kakashi and Iruka took the two out to some town called Konoha.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

Now he had to call Naruto and hand him his fate over the phone.

How horrible is that?

Kiba picked up his cell and punched in Naruto's number.

Voicemail.

_Oh well, _he thought. _Better keep trying._

-

Asuma was proud of himself.

He'd raised Iruka right.

Sure they were the same age, but... well...

Put it this way. Have you ever seen how Ron takes Harry under his wing when he's first introduced the wizarding world? Well that's what Asuma did for Iruka when all the girls and guys started hitting on him.

So he was really proud of how well Iruka turned out.

And Iruka himself had done a pretty damn good job with that son of his as well. Asuma thought this when Naruto came down fort he party he and Sasuke were going to.

This was truly a side effect of his creation. And he loved it.

See, when Iruka was first hit on by a guy and agreed to go out with him, Asuma told him that he had to be the sexiest person in the room if he wanted any. Iruka had no clue what "any" was at the time, but agreed anyway.

And that had been his way of life ever since.

And obviously he rubbed off on Naruto.

So in a weird Chain Reaction kind of thing, Asuma had rubbed off on Naruto that being sexy was the best way to get what you want.

This was proven when Naruto sauntered innocently down the steps wearing extremely low black drainpipes, open high tops, and an ass-tight bright orange fish net top. His outfit left little if nothing to the imagination.

Sasuke thought so too.

In fact, was it not for the fact that Sasuke knew he looked just as sexy as Naruto he would have been suffering from a very severe nosebleed.

Oh yes, Sasuke was obviously looking for some tonight too, thought Asuma.

He also had very low, very tight black drainpipes with a pair of equally black Vans and his shirt was...er...rather non-existent really. It looked as though a wild animal had viciously attacked it leaving almost nothing there.

Sasuke also had black eyeliner on that Kurenai had insisted he'd use to complete the outfit.

She also managed to let Naruto and Iruka allow her to pierce his right ear.

All in all they'd definitely be the hottest people at the party.

Sasuke smirked as Naruto came to stand next to him. Naruto was also sporting the most evil smirk he could manage. They left after saying goodbye to Asuma (he being the only one in the room) and Naruto barely made it out the door before Sasuke started groping him randomly.

He wasn't complaining though.

Upstairs in his room, Naruto's cell phone was buzzing and blinking like crazy.

-

Considering that they were more than fashionably late, Naruto was surprised that the party was still booming as it was. But Sasuke _had _to take a little _detour_ into a dark ally and molest him. It just had to be done.

Sasuke, however, was more than glad that the music was still blasting so loud.

It meant the mosh pit would undoubtedly still be going strong.

These were always his favorite part of concerts or parties. Being able to loose himself in the sweaty mass of bodies trying to forget everything but the music. Knowing that he wasn't alone in the whole, "My life sucks" deal. Knowing that when you close your eyes and just dance it all goes away if only for a few minutes.

And luckily for him, he also had Naruto to make this particular mosh even better.

"Come on." He shouted over the loud speakers. He grabbed Naruto and dragged him into the room where the DJ was. The center of the room was his destination. This was, after all, their last night in Konoha. The last chance he'd be able to be with Naruto and just be with Naruto. Without all the complications of the bet and other shit.

Being the center of all the hysteria was like being in the eye of the hurricane. It was the most peaceful place.

Until that damn North Wall hits.

One of Naruto's favorite songs came on to the speakers and he immediately started dancing. He smelt the body odors from the anonymous bodies all around him and somehow felt at ease among the stench. He could let go and just follow the people around him.

Or he was going to. But Sasuke had different plans.

Naruto gasped as the others body was pushed into his front. Then it was as if all of their pent up frustrations were thrown out to the other with the lyrics. Every bead of sweat created from the body heat suffocating them carried out another thought or another complicated life story until all that was left was a couple of teenage boys.

Which was exactly the way they wanted it. It was the only way they could handle it.

-

After the 758th time of calling Naruto's cell, Kiba figured that a voicemail would be the best he could get.

"Naruto, this is Kiba." He started when the greeting message was over. "Listen man, don't sleep with Uchiha. He's bad news. He's in with another bet. Don't do it. Call me when you get this."

He hung up his cell and chucked it across the room, just as his door opened.

Hinata froze up as she saw the small black blur fly past her.

Kiba's eyes would have widened, had he saw, and he would have apologized profusely. But as it was, his head was down in his hands and he was shaking.

Hinata closed the door behind her and quietly made her way over to him. Something must have seriously been bothering him for _Kiba _to be so depressed.

She sat down next to him and placed her arms around him in a tight hug. He practically through himself at her and cried. He'd just screwed up the best thing that ever happened to Naruto, he'd shout.

And Hinata could only watch as he was torn apart by some stupid bet she didn't even know about.

-

The party raged on for hours. It didn't even slow down until two in the morning. By that time, everyone had already forgotten who they were and just danced as the music vibrated through their bodies. The heat that had originally been stifling became a second skin and everyone used it to their advantage, shredding what clothes they could.

Sasuke and Naruto were no exceptions. Each had already lost their shirts and were grinding together more so than with anyone else.

Though there wasn't any part of their bodies that wasn't being touched by a part of someone else's body.

But as the songs turned slow and the crowd began to dwindle, they slowly came back to reality and pushed out of the remaining people.

The strobe lights were still blinding, even if the music was slow. It didn't make much sense to either boy and once they started to think clearly, they realized that they had basically just been to second base with complete strangers.

It was totally worth it though.

This month had been so hectic. So horribly, horribly morbid for some cases, that it was a much needed break. For one night they hadn't been Naruto and Sasuke, but instead they'd just been another part of some huge thing.

Fate wasn't singling them out when they were in the crowd. Sasuke was tempted to jump back in.

But Naruto was yawning. And he had to watch out for the dobe, because he was sure Naruto was still drunk off the sensations of the music.

So he took Naruto's hand and pulled him out of the house

On their way out they saw the girls who invited them throwing up in a bush. Naruto was about to go say hello but Sasuke pulled him away. They smelled bad enough for one night.

In the middle of the dance floor lay two forgotten shirts. The orange and black thrown on top of one another, forgotten.

-

"Put your hands up for Detroit!" Naruto screamed. He threw his hands up and his head back. They were in front of Asuma's house now.

He'd been doing that all the way home.

Do you know how tempted Sasuke was to throw him into a ditch somewhere and come back in the morning? He had a pounding headache.

And they hadn't even had a drink!

When Sasuke opened the door it was to an empty house. Not surprising, he couldn't expect them to wait up all night, could he now?

Besides, they didn't have their shirts and Iruka would undoubtedly ask questions.

Carefully he guided Naruto to the blonde's room. It wasn't that Naruto was actually drunk, but he was so tired he might as well have been.

He was slaphappy, I guess you could say.

Sasuke had enough sense to at least be aware of his surroundings.

But he still wasn't strong enough at the moment to tuck Naruto in. So he just opened the door and pushed the blonde into the room after a quick goodnight make-out.

"Night, love." He whispered. Then he disappeared into the room Kurenai made over for him.

It was nice. This night of anonymity, he means. But he knew it wouldn't last.

He'd wake up in the morning and it will all have gone to shit.

But this proves how horribly un-clairvoyant Sasuke was.

He didn't even have to wait until morning.

Naruto walked into his room, slightly more away after having kissed Sasuke as he had. He was still dead tired though and couldn't wait to curl up and go to sleep.

But unfortunately, there was something on his pillow which prevented him from doing that.

He picked up his cell phone and his eyes widened. 759 missed calls. All from Kiba.

Then he remembered that he forgot to call his friends and tell them where he was. And who he was with.

That still wouldn't have set Kiba over the edge though. Naruto, actually couldn't remember ever seeing Kiba freak out over something.

So he checked his voicemail. Only one.

He pressed call.

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Now! Mwahaha, cliffhanga!! Alright, I know you all hate me and I will undoubtedly love you all even more after you read this because that means you're still with me. But seriously, it's not my fault! I was raised with a bunch of procrastinators! Nature vs. Nurture, remember?

And now that you've all finished my chapter, you can review then go check out naruchan-in-love's stories and review because he is an awesome writer!!

And one more thing. Thanks to dark-night-sky for your review and PM. They helped!

Ciao!

Yobster


	14. Sayonara First Love

**Disclaimer: **I wish...

**Warnings:** Yaoi, OOC-ness, Language

**A/N: **I wish I could apologize big enough for making you wait for more than a month but I can't so please accept this chapter as my apology.

**You are the God of Stupidity**

It didn't take a genius to figure it out, it really didn't. Sasuke woke up the morning after the party in so much pain he was sure his head might explode. He could hardly move his body to get out of bed. There wasn't a point anyway. He'd just make Kakashi carry him to the car. The pain was unbearable.

However, he had to go downstairs sometime. When he opened his eyes the light stung them. He only squinted though. He wasn't a wimp; he could take a little headache. But what he really didn't like was the way that everything around the center of his vision was blurred and even the smallest sound echoed like the Bells of Notre Dame.

And when he got downstairs to find everyone hustling and bustling around getting ready to depart, it sounded like a giant party where everything was happening around him but not to him.

Somewhere in his mind he realized he must have looked like shit so he put his hood up and got to helping in anyway he could.

Which turned out to be so unhelpful that Kurenai put him on the couch with aspirin and told him not to move. He didn't have a problem with that.

So he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

His head _really_ hurt.

-

Naruto woke up in worse condition than Sasuke. Partially because he wasn't as big of a morning person as the other but mostly because he'd hardly been to sleep in the first place.

If anyone bothered to look close enough they would have seen the tear streaks that darkened his unusually pale skin. His eyes were blood shot and his hair was a mess. His nose was red, his throat burned, and to top it all off his head felt so heavy he could hardly keep it up.

Still, Iruka might notice if he stayed in bed too long. In order to hide his haggard appearance, Naruto put on the biggest hoodie he could find and lifted the hood.

Then, in an attempt to blast his headache away, he put his headphones in and cranked the Used.

He felt it fit the occasion.

Even though the music flooded out the outside world, it didn't stop his thoughts. Kiba's voicemail played over and over again in his head...

Listen man, don't sleep with Uchiha. He's bad news. He's in with another bet. Don't do it. Call me when you get this.

Sasuke was just betting on him. Naruto swallowed hard. Kiba wouldn't lie to him. And it wasn't like this hadn't happened before. But...

You don't understand. Naruto loves Sasuke. A lot. And to watch him disappear would be even worse than watching his parents disappear.

So he was going to ask Sasuke. Not dump him right away... that would be too hurtful.

Maybe Sasuke didn't take the bet and Kiba just got some bad information. Kiba was known to exaggerate after all.

Then Naruto took a step away from the stairs and his gaze fell on Sasuke's form lounging on the couch and swallowing some medicine. Tears flooded Naruto's eyes.

Okay... maybe he'd ask him once he was a little more emotionally stable.

If he was ever emotionally stable again that is.

-

"Alright, we'll see you later!" Kurenai shouted, waving as Iruka and Kakashi got into the front seats of the car. "Be sure to visit more often!"

Iruka nodded and waved one last time before slamming his door shut. Naruto and Sasuke were already sleeping in the back seat and if he wasn't so tired himself Iruka would have noticed that they were both leaning on opposite sides of the car. As it was, he was very tired and should not have let Kakashi keep him up so late last night but he did and so he didn't notice it.

Kakashi didn't really notice it either. If he did he didn't make anything of it. So they just stayed that way for the whole ride. No one really talked because two of them were asleep and the last one didn't feel like talking a whole lot today.

And that is how the car ride, which should have taken forever, felt like ten minutes. And before they knew it Iruka and Naruto were being kicked out of the car and thrown onto their lawn. To some extent, at least. Really they were carefully shaken awake and Sasuke and Kakashi helped carry the bags up to the house and everything. But when they look back on it they could have at least said something to each other.

But since they didn't it seemed just as mean as if they actually _had_ kicked them out of the car and thrown them onto their lawn.

Anyway, Iruka and Naruto fell asleep in the living room and stayed like that until around eight o'clock that night, when they woke up to set the alarm clocks and went back to sleep.

-

Kiba pounded furiously on the door. Didn't bushy brows _know_ that he was supposed to answer the first time the bell was rung? Not the eightieth.

You know, Kiba actually had a really full life, and wouldn't normally spend such a long time trying to contact his friends if it wasn't for his fetish with high numbers. If whoever he's calling can't say "That lunatic called me -insert number over fifty here- then Kiba just doesn't feel complete.

So he stood there pounding on the door and ringing the bell over and over again until he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and saw Lee standing there with Neji not far behind him and both of them wearing amused expressions on their faces.

They wouldn't be so amused when he told them what he had to tell them. Oh no they wouldn't. He'd be bombarded with questions concerning the important information, which resided in his brain.

And they'd all worship him for telling them. World domination baby. Boo-yah.

"Kiba! What are you doing on my porch?" Lee shouted, fishing the keys out of his pocket and ushering Kiba to the side so he could get in. Neji was standing behind them, apparently asleep with his eyes open.

"I found out something horrible! You've gotta call Shikamaru and tell him to get over here as fast as you can!"

Lee sweatdropped.

"Why didn't you just get him first?" Kiba scoffed and motioned his hand as if swatting away stupidity.

"Don't question my methods. Just do it." Pretending to be completely above arguing with Kiba, Lee rolled his eyes and opened the door while flipping open his cell and calling Shikamaru, who surprisingly answered on the first ring. Like he was expecting the call.

"What?"

"Kiba's going crazy again."

"I'll be over in five."

"Hey!"

Snapping the phone shut Lee threw his jacket down and took Neji's. They all sat around in the living room in a comically awkward silence waiting for Shikamaru or the imaginary elevator music. Whichever came first.

Eventually (Though it took him _six_ minutes, not five as he said before) Shikamaru got there and Kiba shouted out his information. Neither of Naruto's close friends took it too kindly and Neji wasn't happy about it either. They all wore looks that promised death to Sasuke and whoever else got in their way.

"Wait," Neji said, interrupting the silent plotting going on in the other three's minds. "Did you say Gaara? Crazy red hair, no eyebrows?"

Kiba nodded furiously, thinking that Neji was going somewhere with that but disappointed when the boy returned to his thinking pose.

"Do you know him?" White-eyes looked up to meet Lee's and Neji shrugged.

"I've heard of him. Apparently he was used in a bet too. It turned out really nasty. When he found out he was being used he tried to...er..." He made a crude notion, dragging his thumb across his neck and Lee shuddered.

"I'll bet you anything it was Sasuke." Kiba growled out. Shikamaru sighed, which wouldn't seem like a horrible thing to anyone who didn't know him, but this sigh was incredibly different from his other "bored" or "tired" sighs. This was a sigh of anger and death.

After a few minutes, they decided to split and talk again tomorrow at school. They couldn't do anything for now and it would be best to calm down just a little bit before they saw Sasuke.

According to Shikamaru anyway.

-

_Finally... Peace._ Sasuke sighed as he settled into his comforter. Although he really couldn't possibly be at peace with everything that's going on, I'm pretty sure he meant in the general sense. Like... _Finally... Peace from the world._ You know?

It was as if he could sink into his sheets and never come back out again. That way he wouldn't have to face Naruto tomorrow. Which would definitely be helpful for his sanity. He was sure he'd loose it as soon as his next conversation with Naruto was over. Because that would be the conversation about how low Sasuke is and how big of an asshole he had been.

How could he convince Naruto that it wasn't all a lie? Sure, the original reason was a total lie. He hadn't been interested in the other romantically in the beginning. But he really had grown to love him. Every single time he saw Naruto after their movie night he knew that he loved him.

But he refused to stop the bet.

When he first figured out that it really was love, he thought that he'd continued the bet because of denial... Don't look at him like that. Sasuke loves to psychoanalyze himself.

Anyway, after thinking about it more and more he figured out that it was because of what had happened on his last bet. The one with Gaara.

Gaara had told Sasuke that he loved him so much he'd given him his whole heart. That he didn't care if it really was a bet. But Sasuke just pushed him away and said that if Gaara had truly given him enough of his heart to break, he shouldn't be asking him back.

Because Sasuke knew that Gaara didn't love him. The redhead was kind of like the Naruto of his old school. Everyone thought he was a freak. The difference was that Naruto has some people who love him. Gaara didn't really have anyone.

So he went crazy all because of Sasuke.

And Sasuke figured that if that were love then he wouldn't want to risk it. Sure he "loved" Kakashi but that was because he was his guardian. Not because he had a crush or anything.

But then he met Naruto. And he felt like he was floating. And it felt so fantastic that it persuaded Sasuke to take that chance.

Unfortunately it was too late. He hadn't dropped the bet and the month was over tomorrow. He'd have to pay those jocks a thousand dollars.

You must be confused. See, Sasuke decided that he wasn't going to tell them that he succeeded. That would make it absolutely impossible to make Naruto believe him.

Speaking of the jocks...

Sasuke looked down to see his phone blinking and ringing so he answered it.

"Times up, Sasuke my boy! So did you nail him?" Dark eyes rolled and he took a deep breath to keep from blowing up at them. It wasn't their fault he was so easily persuaded by money.

"No." He flipped shut the phone and threw it across the room. Tomorrow was going to suck.

-

06:00

Alarm clocks go off. Slowly everyone gets out of bed and stumbles into their bathrooms.

Naruto looks in his mirror and shudders. He looked like he'd _already been_ dumped. He washed his face, brushed his teeth, and did all of his normal morning stuff while constantly choking back tears.

Sasuke was so ashamed that he couldn't even meet his own eyes in the reflecting glass. He kept his head down and completed everything he needed to, taking his time. Because he was not looking forward to school today.

Kiba had pretty much the same morning as Lee and Shikamaru. The three of them wore matching glares, thinking about what they were going to do to Sasuke as soon as they could.

Kakashi refused to wake up at Six A.M. He didn't want to get up until he felt he had too.

Iruka watched Naruto playing with his breakfast and shuddered. He had a very strong feeling that today was going to be a horrible day.

-

It was lunchtime at school and two boys were missing from the lunchroom, which didn't make sense since that's where students should be during lunch...

But we'll forgive these two because they had special reasons for not being there. See, these two boys were Naruto and Sasuke. And they were having a private meeting in the chapel above the school building.

And it was incredibly awkward. Neither one was really talking. They were just sitting in one of the pews, looking at each other and thinking over everything that needed to be said.

It took a while, and more than half of the lunch period, but Naruto eventually sighed and licked his lips pulling Sasuke out of his trance.

"Sasuke," he started. The other flinched when he heard the crack in Naruto's voice from crying. "I-... Kiba told me that you bet on sleeping with me... With some of the jocks in school... S-so... Did you?"

Naruto knew that it helped to just spit out everything you needed to say as fast as you could. Like ripping off a band-aid. And in a twisted metaphor he could be ripping off a band-aid.

When those other people bet on him, it tore his heart a little bit that people actually thought of him as so big of a freak that he didn't matter. And even though it took some time he got over the pain and "put a band-aid" on that tare.

And Sasuke could be tearing it all over again.

"Look, Naruto." Sasuke looked down into his lap and refused to meet the pleading blue eyes that were boring into the top of his head. "I know that you have been bet on before. And as disgusting as it is, I know what it's like to bet on a person. Every time I've had to leave a school in the past it was because I bet on some kid and couldn't stand the looks I'd get afterwards.

"So when I got here, I didn't see why it should have been any different. I figured I could use the money and everything. So yes, I did bet on you." Naruto flinched and narrowed his eyes at Sasuke. How could he have been so stupid? "But-" Sasuke cut off his thoughts. "This one didn't end like all the others. I really started to like you a lot and I know I should have stopped the bet when I realized what was going on... But I didn't.

"You have every right to hate my guts," he met Naruto's heated glare. "I know I'm worse than the amoeba on the fungus on the dirt on the rats that live in the sewers and I'm probably not going to be able to sleep because I'll be thinking about how horrible I've been to someone that I actually... well... love."

Sasuke swallowed and sighed very deeply. Man that was a load off. And judging by the look being sent his way, Naruto was definitely going to practice his right to hate Sasuke's guts.

"How much?"

Sasuke furrowed his brow at Naruto questions.

"What?"

"How much money do you get for sleeping with me?" Naruto growled out. Sasuke tried to answer quickly.

"No-"

"I can't believe you! That's all I am is just a _fucking_ bet?" Naruto scoffed and stood up. "I am through with listening to you Sasuke. It is only going to be a bunch of lies. Lies that make me believe that all of those fairytales I used to be told about are real. Lies that make me think that finally, _finally_, someone other than my friends and my dad actually looked at me as something more than a toy. You really are a bastard."

Before Naruto ran out of the chapel and to the cafeteria, he tore off the necklace that he always wore. The blue gem on a silver chain that Sasuke had given him two weeks ago. He threw it on the floor and stopped on it, shattering it to a million pieces. Finally he sprinted out of the chapel.

And Sasuke was left all alone. He couldn't believe he'd been so stupid.

_Way to go. You are the god of stupidity.._

-

Naruto was just about to enter the cafeteria. He hadn't started crying yet and was going to try and wait until he got home. No one had ever seen him cry before except his friends and Iruka. He refused to give anyone else that satisfaction.

Unfortunately there were some people who were apparently waiting for him in front of the only doors to the cafeteria and his friends.

The Jocks.

"Well, well, well, look who it is! It's the freak!" The leader of the gang sneered and stalked up to Naruto cockily. "Did you break up with your _boyfriend_ already? Only lasted a month I see. Pity you can't hold onto anyone longer than that."

Naruto narrowed his eyes and snarled. Who were these bastards to mess with his life like this? Who were they to decide if he was _fuckable_?

"Get out of my way." He tried to push passed them, but the two big goons from the back held him in place. He heard the leader fumbling with something behind him and he started wriggling around and trying to break free. They wouldn't relent.

He heard something start to spray and felt something cold on his back. He flinched away from it but couldn't move his legs because the two jocks were standing on his feet. He started to smell pain fumes and gasped.

These bastards were spray-painting him!

"Let go! Get off of me!" The three just guffawed and the leader continued with his painting. "You got what you wanted! Sasuke got me! So what more do you want from me?"

The spray sound suddenly stopped. Either he finished or Naruto said something to him...

"What? Uchiha said he didn't nail you."

_Why would Sasuke say that?_

"Well he did." The jocks finally let go of him and Naruto looked up from the floor to see that the cafeteria doors were open. Everyone had seen that...

Including everyone he'd tried to keep in the dark about how weak he was since kindergarten. But they were either smirking or looking at him in pity. He wished more than anything that his friends were there. Or Iruka. Or-

"Get. The. Fuck. Away. From. Him." Naruto turned from all of the horrible looks he was getting to see Sasuke standing in front of him fuming.

The jocks grinned cheekily.

"Uchiha! Why didn't you tell us you-" but he was cut off by a fist connecting with his face. He would have screamed if he hadn't felt his jaw break.

"I said leave." It was clear by the look on Sasuke's face that anyone who disobeyed him at the moment would get severely punished. So the Letterman jacket wearing assholes scattered and the cafeteria doors shut.

Naruto nervously looked up to see Sasuke. When he looked at the dark eyed boy's face, he saw surprising tear marks on his cheeks. Without a word Sasuke advanced on him and stood twelve inches in front of him. He took off his jacket and his shirt then handed them to Naruto.

That was when the blonde snapped back to reality and remembered that he had graffiti on his back. But he didn't understand why Sasuke was standing in front of him in the middle of the school hallway after ripping out his heart without a shirt on.

"You want to switch shirts with me?" At Sasuke's nod, Naruto took off his black, long-sleeved shirt and gave it to Sasuke, who handed Naruto his black shirt and white sweat jacket.

Once they had their shirts on, Sasuke nodded again and said one final thing.

"Sayonara, Naruto." Naruto blinked back tears and nodded back.

"Sayonara, Sasuke."

And Naruto watched his first love walk away down the hall. In bright neon green letters on his back was written "Easy" with two money signs underneath it.

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The next chapter will be the last one. Sad, I know. And I hate doing this to Naruto and Sasuke. It's killing me!

Please review.

Yobster


	15. Happily Ever After

Ready?

**Happily Ever After**

Naruto and Sasuke finished out their school year without saying so much as a single "Hi" to each other. Naruto talked to his friends at lunch, but only when he was paying attention because most of the time he was dazing off, dreaming about what it could have been like if life didn't suck.

Sasuke didn't say a word to anyone in the school building after saying goodbye to Naruto. He focused everything he had on his grades and ended up with straight A's. Then, as soon as the bell rang on the last day, he disappeared into his house and almost never came out again. Only when Kakashi forced him to go to the video store with him and get something horribly gruesome to watch did he leave and even then, when he saw Annie he flipped a shit and cussed her out.

She quit because her life sucked too.

Kakashi didn't make Sasuke leave the house again.

It might surprise you to know that Iruka and Kakashi never broke up. They didn't even take a break. Because the day that Naruto confronted Sasuke about the bet was the day that Kakashi interrupted an English class to tell Iruka about how much he loved him and how he really didn't want to keep it a secret but he had to.

"It's said that he was Shakespeare's lover. Exciting, neh?"

The girls in the class swooned and most of the boys started daydreaming about what that would be like if Shakespeare was hot. ;P

It was a few moments later, after more talk of Billy S. and his fabulous life (which was actually not so fabulous at all) that there came a frantic knock on the door. Iruka walked over and opened the door. He gasped when he saw Kakashi standing there nervously, practically shuffling his feet.

"What's wrong?" Iruka was pushed back into the room by the fierceness of Kakashi's kiss.

When they pulled apart, Iruka saw how shocked his students looked and blushed. But Kakashi didn't notice. He was breathing heavy and holding onto Iruka's face with both hands.

"I'm sorry." He whispered. "I didn't want it to get this bad. I really wanted to tell you all about it, but Sasuke would have been shattered."

Iruka furrowed his brow. "What?" He asked.

"Sasuke bet on Naruto. It's horrible I know it is. And I knew about it but I didn't say anything. I'm so sorry."

It was difficult to come up with something to say. In his head, Iruka knew that everything Kakashi saying was so indescribably despicable that he should have decked Kakashi right then and there. But...

It was impossible. For one thing Iruka loved Kakashi. For another, how romantic was this? Running into his English class in front of all of his students and kissing him like that...

Because of Iruka's silence Kakashi had let go of his head and was ready to leave - still without glancing at the students - but his exit was ruined by hands grabbing the back of his head and pulling him forward until his lips collided with Iruka's in a mind blowing kiss. Even the yaoi-haters got nose bleeds.

For the second time the pair pulled apart and it was Iruka who spoke.

"I understand. And I'm sorry you had to go through that. But I still love you." He grinned as did Kakashi, both blushing just the slightest bit.

"I love you too." Iruka flung his arms around Kakashi's neck and the taller guy lifted him up and spun him around before placing him on the ground again.

The class whooped and cheered and then cringed back in fear at the glare their teacher gave them.

"Back to work!"

Kakashi laughed...

It was so much like all of his movies and books that Iruka couldn't be too mad at him. Though they didn't have sex for two weeks and the only way that Kakashi could contain himself was by looking at Sasuke and thanking whoever was swimming out there in the cosmos that Iruka didn't hate his guts.

Poor Sasuke.

The kid didn't leave his room, let alone the house. He stayed in there doing who knows what all day.

The one thing Kakashi did know was that Sasuke was miserable. Every time he heard emo music blasting he had flashbacks of when he first began to take care of Sasuke.

Right after the boy's parents died.

For quite some time Kakashi had been a friend to the Uchiha family. He and Sasuke's uncle had been going to school together since Pre-K, so they were all very close. He was Sasuke's godfather and he'd been to every wedding or funeral or baptism since he met the boy's uncle.

And Sasuke's parent's funeral was the worst one ever. Itachi landed himself in Juvi and this left five-year-old Sasuke sitting in an oversized chair, seemingly shrinking into the cushion, crying his eyes out but trying to seem like a "big boy" so he was sniffling.

It wasn't until he saw Kakashi walk through the door that Sasuke let himself bawl. The silver haired man seemed to be the only person Sasuke ever let his guard down around. So it seemed fitting that he is the one who Sasuke lives with when he had nowhere else to go.

And as soon as they got the chance Kakashi took them as far from the Uchiha's hometown as he possibly could.

Which started the whole betting thing. Honestly, when Kakashi really thought about it the entire thing, every single time they'd done it, was totally stupid. He reprimanded himself every time he thought about it. What kind of idiot would do that? What kind of moron would let his son do that?

They would, obviously.

A door opening upstairs interrupted Kakashi's musings. He held his breath, hoping that Sasuke would be coming down. The boy hadn't been out of his room save for the bathroom or a quick snack in weeks.

That's why it surprised him when Sasuke made his way into the kitchen, freshly showered, dressed, and ready to go out for a night on the town.

"What's the occasion?" He asked with a smirk.

Sasuke shrugged. "I'm going to a party. No big deal."

Kakashi shook his head. "Actually, it's a very big deal. Have you decided to finally get over it?"

Although reading it makes it sound like a joke, Kakashi spoke with the utmost sincerity. He was very worried about Sasuke's well being and he was sure that his son knew this.

"I'm starting to breath normally again, if that's what you mean. See you later." With a small wave Sasuke walked out the door and down the street.

-

"Come on, Naruto! You have three very handsome dates at the door and they are waiting for you!"

The door Iruka was pounding on swung open to reveal a glaring Naruto.

"I'm almost ready." The blonde's voice lacked its former spark. No doubt the after math of a very unfortunate ending to his first love two months ago.

Actually it was two months, four days, thirteen hours, and thirty-six minutes and yes, Naruto was the one counting.

"I just don't want you to miss this party! It'll be a great chance for you to get out and back in the market." Iruka walked through the doorway and flopped down on the unmade bed. Naruto was staring at him through the mirror on his dresser.

"I'm not exactly a big fan of the market right now, dad." Iruka rolled his eyes.

"Well I don't see why you don't just call Sasuke back. He's been calling you fifty times a day ever since a week after the last day of school. Fifty seven times if I'm over at his house." Iruka placed his face on his palm and shrugged looking up at Naruto.

He was very worried about his son. It was understandable for him to hate the other guys that bet on him, but Sasuke truly regretted what he did and really did love Naruto. Iruka, being the totally hopeless romantic that he is fully supported the two reuniting and having hot, steamy make up sex.

Naruto glared at him. "Well _I_ don't see how you can still be going out with Kakashi when he knew about it."

Although he it wanted to be threatening, Iruka didn't even wince at Naruto's words. They were spoken with no conviction at all. Naruto knew how much Iruka and Kakashi loved each other. They loved each other as much as he and Sasuke did. It only irked him for about a week afterwards that Iruka didn't take a break at all from seeing Kakashi. But he got over it.

One of them should be happy anyway.

"Shut up. Are you ready or not?" Naruto nodded and they walked down the stairs together.

Standing in the foyer were Shikamaru, Lee, and Kiba. All waiting to escort Naruto to his first party since the break up. Hell it was his first anything since the break up.

Naruto had taking this almost the same as Sasuke. Only instead of staying in his room all summer he stayed in the living room eating Cookie Dough and yummy chocolate while watching all of Iruka's cheesy romance comedies.

Kiba wolf whistled when Iruka twirled Naruto around. "Looking good, man!"

"I'll be sure to tell Hinata you want to run away with him." Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"Both of you be quiet!" Lee shouted. "How are you doing Naruto?" He turned and extended an arm, which Naruto took.

"Better." They all waved good- bye to Iruka and walked out the door. As soon as they were gone, the brunette ran to the phone and dialed a familiar number.

"They just left." He grinned.

"Good." Kakashi voice sounded on the other end of the phone. "Sasuke too."

"I'm so excited!" Taking the cordless phone into the living room, Iruka flopped over the back of the couch as he said this.

"How about we do something about that until the kids come back?" Iruka could hear Kakashi's smirk.

"Be there in five minutes." Iruka hung up and threw the phone on the chair before running to his car.

-

Sasuke decided he hates techno music. And strobe lights. Alcohol infested teenagers were on his "List of Things to Kill" as well.

Why the hell did he come to this party again? Oh yeah, that stupid phone call from Sakura.

"When are you going to get over it? You did something wrong you big baby, so come to my party and fix it!"

She promised that Naruto would be here so he could apologize. But Sasuke didn't see a single damn natural blonde for miles!

"Fucking pink haired son of a bitch." He mumbled, taking another sip of his water.

"Sathuke!" He cringed at the high-pitched slur of his voice.

"What, Ino?" She giggled when he said her name. Then she sighed and placed her head on his shoulder. For a few minutes Sasuke assumed she'd fallen asleep. But then the blonde gave a sudden jolt and snapped her fingers as best as the alcohol would let her.

"Naruto is here!" Sasuke jumped up and looked around, knocking Ino to the ground but not really caring. Sure enough when he looked over towards the entrance he saw the familiar mop of blonde hair latched on to Shikamaru so they wouldn't get separated. Both of their other friends had already disappeared into the ground and Shikamaru was about ready to jump that girl Temari from the senior class.

Sasuke figured that if he waited just long enough, the blonde would be left alone and-

All the thoughts left Sasuke's mind when he met those ocean blue eyes. Naruto's grip loosened on Shikamaru and he was soon left standing alone. Unfortunately Sasuke didn't notice this or he would have been over there in a heartbeat to make sure that no one else dared touched him.

Then Naruto looked away and ducked out of the room. Sasuke was quick to follow him out of the pounding noise and into the quiet of the garden.

-

The garden at Sakura's house was fit for a palace. There was a maze of hedges and flowers decorating them. Roses, lilies, orchids, birds of paradise, any flower you can imagine. There was also a cobble stone path leading through the maze. It let all the way to a little wooden bench that overlooked a beautiful pond. And the stars were in plane sight since there weren't any man made lights to prohibit one from seeing them. Clearly her mother was a fan of the same kind of movies that Iruka was.

It seemed quiet enough to hear a pin drop compared to the noise inside the house. So it was very easy for Sasuke to hear the sniffles coming from behind the hedges. He made his way across the path and looked at the bench.

Sitting there, with his knees drawn up to his chin trying to stifle his cries was Naruto.

Of course it was obvious what the blonde was crying about. He was crying because he saw Sasuke at the party. Sasuke himself wished he was home again so he could be alone and cry. It was too much emotion for his teenage hormone-driven body to frikin handle, dammit.

_But wait,_ he thought. _I want to cry because I love Naruto. And because I miss him. So it's either that he feels the same way or he just hates me that much..._

Time to flip a mental coin. Heads, he hates Sasuke. Tales, Sasuke should go kiss the daylights out of him. Ready... set...flip!

Tales.

Heck to the yes, my friends. Heck to the yes.

Sasuke walked over to the bench and sat down next to Naruto, looking at him the whole time. Naruto didn't make any move to indicate that he knew Sasuke was there so the Uchiha cleared his throat.

Naruto's eyes widened and he quickly subdued his tears. He didn't want to be so weak in front of Sasuke.

"W-what do you want?" He asked. Sasuke didn't say anything. He was looking into Naruto's eyes for some reason that he should leave. Anything saying the blonde didn't want him there. "Why are you here? I thought you hated parties."

Sasuke shrugged. Naruto placed his feet on the ground and continued to rant. This is what he did when he was nervous.

"You really shouldn't be here. I shouldn't even be talking to you! I'm supposed to hate you. I hate the other guys. I should hate you too. But I don't." Naruto sighed. "And do you realize how many times I've sighed because of you? Well it's a lot. I've probably wasted so much breath sighing that I cut off at least two years of my life. Thanks. Thanks a lot."

Sasuke honestly wasn't listening to anything Naruto said after he admitted to not hating him. Come on, were you?

Sasuke's intense stare stopped Naruto short. He licked his lips and swallowed the lump that was in his throat. There wasn't anything he wanted more than to jump Sasuke at the moment. He missed him so much. He didn't want to be strong and get over it. He wanted to be with Sasuke again.

Then he felt a hand on the side of his face. It was Sasuke's. Unconciously he leaned in to the touch but his eye contact didn't break with Sasuke. Before he knew it they were both leaning in.

"I'm sorry." Sasuke whispered right before he captured Naruto's lips in a mind blowing kiss. This was the fairytale kiss that Naruto had been watching all summer. When the girls say that fireworks go off all around them.

Naruto was quick to respond to Sasuke and wrapped his arms around the taller boy's neck. He felt energy pulsing through his entire body, leaning forward for more.

Unfortunately, just as the kiss was about to intensify there was a loud scream from the house and they were sprayed with something very wet.

And it wouldn't stop...

They broke apart. "Kiba you bastard! Turn the sprinklers off!"

Naruto jumped up and started yelling at his friend. Sasuke laughed and laughed until he too was off the bench and holding Naruto's face in his hands.

"I love you." He said. Naruto grinned and responded with yet another kiss.

Which of course led to the hot, steamy make up sex that shall not be featured in this story.

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"So no more bets."

"No more bets."

"Good."

And they lived Happily Ever After.

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So how was it?! I like it, personally. I think it was a good ending for them.

Seriously though, my computer is under Spyware Attack!! It's very hard to type a chapter while dodging flying Spyware!

Please review and tell me if you liked it or not, I hope you did!

Ciao,

Yobster


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